ill 


liiii! 


'W. 


Mr 


il^iiil^ 


A  YOUNG    MAN'S    JESUS 


A   YOUNG   MAN'S   JESUS 


BY 


BRUCE  BARTON 


MAR  16  196? 


THE    PILGRIM    PRESS 

BOSTON  NEW   YORK  CHICAGO 

R.  P.  I. 


COPYRIGHT,     1914 
BY    LUTHER    H.    GARY 


THE -PLIUPTON -PRESS 
NORWOOO-UASS-U-S-A 


TO  MY  FATHER 
A  YOUNG  MAN'S  PREACHER 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface ix 

I    And  Overthrew  Their  Tables       .      .  3 

II    And  Waxed  Strong 18 

III  Behold,  a  Man 34 

IV  That  He  Should  Eat  with  Him     .      .  52 
V    And  Besought  Him 64 

VI    Generation  of  Vipers 75 

VII    The  Outside  of  the  Cup       ....  93 

VIII    As  Yourself 106 

IX    First  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  .      .      ,  120 

X    The  Man  who  Could  Have  Been  King  134 

XI    Walked  with  Him  no  More       .      .      .  152 

XII    With  Him  Two  Robbers        ....  169 

XIII  The  Third  Day 193 

XIV  More  than  a  Man 211 


PREFACE 

IT  is  time  for  those  of  us  who  are  this 
side  of  thirty-five  to  unite  and  take 
back  our  Jesus.  We  have  been  too  care- 
lessly generous.  We  have  allowed  Him  to 
be  appropriated  here,  there,  and  everywhere 
until  we  have  forgotten  how  indisputable 
is  our  own  first  claim  to  Him.  We  have 
surrendered  His  statues  to  cathedrals  and 
hospitals  and  —  Heaven  forgive  us  —  even  to 
monasteries.  We  have  looked  on  unprotest- 
ingly  while  painters  have  made  Him  soft- 
faced,  and  effeminate;  and  hymn- writers 
have  written  of  His  sufferings  as  though  that 
were  all  in  His  life  worth  writing  about.  We 
have  only  ourselves  to  blame,  if  out  of  all 
the  repellent  medley  of  hospitals  and  monas- 
teries and  weak  pictures  and  spiritless  hymns, 
the  public  has  formed  its  own  conception  of 
a  tired,  unhappy,  martyred  Jesus  who  lived 


X  PREFACE 

without  a  real  laugh  and  looked  forward  to 
dying  in  a  sort  of  fanatical  eagerness. 

If  this  is  the  picture  which  red-blooded  men 
have  of  Him,  then  it  is  our  fault  who  are 
still  this  side  of  thirty-five.  For  He  is  our 
Jesus  in  a  special  sense.  He  died  before  He 
was  thirty-five.  He  had  our  bounding  pulses, 
our  hot  desires.  He  felt  His  spirits  leap  in 
the  bracing  air  of  the  new  morning.  He  knew 
the  stirring  cheer  of  good  fellowship.  We 
who  dream  our  dreams  of  success  know  how 
He  felt  that  morning  when  He  rode  into 
Jerusalem  over  the  strewed  palms;  and 
because  our  road  stretches  out  a  long  way  in 
front,  through  years  of  sunshine,  as  His 
might  have  stretched,  the  agony  of  that  cry 
from  the  cross  rings  more  sharply  in  our  ears 
than  in  any  others.  He  is  our  Jesus,  and  we 
have  surrendered  Him  to  priests  and  to 
women,  to  hospitals  and  monasteries,  without 
so  much  as  a  struggle. 

The  trouble  starts  in  the  Sunday  schools. 
Who  of  us  does  not  remember  the  fine  thrill  of 
appreciation  with  which  he  welcomed  Samson 
into  his  list  of  heroes  —  and  David  .'^    They 


PREFACE  XI 

were  regular  men's  men:  we  knew  how  they 
felt  and  what  they  struggled  against.  When 
they  killed  a  lion  or  a  giant,  or  wiped  out  an 
army,  they  had  our  admiration,  every  bit  of 
it.  They  were  real  flesh  and  blood  men  and 
we  liked  them. 

Why  we  could  not  have  come  up  to  the  life 
of  Jesus  in  the  same  wholesome  flesh  and 
blood  style  is  a  mystery  —  but  somehow  we 
did  not.  As  soon  as  we  left  Malachi  and 
crossed  the  three  blank  pages  that  lie  between 
the  Testaments  all  the  reality  seemed  to 
disappear.  For  one  thing  Jerusalem  never 
seemed  real.  Whether  there  was  any  business 
in  it,  any  dwellings,  any  stores  and  oflBces, 
we  could  never  quite  make  out:  it  was  to  us 
a  sort  of  stage  city  consisting  of  a  temple  and 
a  wall.  And  compared  to  David  and  Sam- 
son —  hot,  pulsing  realities  —  Jesus  seemed 
hardly  more  than  the  shadow  of  a  man./  He 
was  the  "lamb,"  the  "meek  and  lowly,"  the 
"man  of  sorrows,"  the  long-suffering  one  who 
had  turned  the  other  cheek.  He  was  every- 
thing in  our  Sunday  school  teaching  which  I 
judge  He  Himself  would  have  preferred  not 


xii  PREFACE 

to  be.  To  think  of  Him  as  a  real  man,  doing 
a  tremendous  task,  was  made  to  seem  some- 
how irreverent:  to  have  suggested  that  He 
was  strong  physically,  that  the  muscles  stand- 
ing out  in  His  arms  and  legs  helped  to  breed 
respect  in  the  crowd  that  followed  Him,  would 
have  been  nothing  short  of  sacrilege.  We 
admired  Him,  as  we  might  admire  a  man  in  a 
hospital  who  suffered  without  flinching.  But 
we  did  not  feel  close  to  Him  —  not  as  we  felt 
close  to  Samson  and  David,  nor  to  Moses  with 
his  wand  and  brass  snake. 

Against  all  this  negative  conception  of  the 
Young  Man  of  Galilee,  we,  to  whom  He 
belongs  in  a  special  sense,  ought  vigorously 
to  protest.  That  our  objection  may  be  more 
compelling,  we  should  have  our  own  picture 
of  Him  so  clear-cut  and  distinctive  that  the 
whole  world  must  acknowledge  it.  It  is  to 
present  this  truer  portrait  —  of  a  young  man 
glowing  with  physical  strength  and  the  joy  of 
living,  athrill  with  the  protest  of  youth  against 
oppression  and  intolerance,  yet  radiating  a 
spiritual  power  that  has  transformed  the 
world  —  that  this  little  book  is  written. 


PREFACE  xiii 

It  makes  no  pretense  of  being  a  "Life  of 
Christ"  in  the  accepted  sense.  Of  such  hves 
there  are  scores  already  and  we  have  pillaged 
from  the  best  of  them  shamelessly  in  preparing 
these  pages  whenever  we  could.  Neither 
chronology  nor  theology  find  here  the  defer- 
ence which  they  are  accustomed  to  receive; 
and  all  those  important  but  never  to  be  de- 
cided questions,  concerning  which  men  have 
held  fiercest  dispute,  are  utterly  ignored. 
We  have  simply  dipped  down  into  the  rich 
and  varied  color  of  His  life,  and  choosing 
such  material  as  suited  our  need,  have  fash- 
ioned a  portrait  of  Him  as  He  really  was,  a 
master  of  men  subhmely  powerful,  a  young 
man,  whom  strong  men  can  love. 

That  men  should  have  failed  to  remember 
how  strong  He  was  seems  strange  indeed, 
when  you  think  of  the  thirty  years  in  a  car- 
penter shop,  and  the  rough  usage  of  His  three 
years  of  pubhc  life.  Much  of  the  time  He 
had  nowhere  to  lay  His  head:  His  couch  was 
a  nest  of  boughs  under  the  open  sky.  A  fine 
physique  glories  in  exposure  of  that  sort,  but 
weakness  breaks  down  under  it. 


xiv  PREFACE 

And  do  you  think  the  miracles  which  He 
did  could  have  been  wrought  by  any  man 
unless  he  radiated  health  and  healing  like  the 
sun? 

"We  have  sought  to  exhume  His  hearty 
laugh  from  the  pages  of  dry  theological  treatise 
which  have  smothered  it,  and  to  set  it  ringing 
joyously  across  the  record  of  His  days.  Men 
loved  to  have  Him  at  their  dinners,  and  He 
loved  the  tumult  of  the  crowd.  The  first 
criticism  tossed  against  Him  was  not  that  He 
was  too  spiritual,  but  that  He  was  not  spiritual 
enough,  in  the  dead  and  formal  sense.  "If 
you  really  are  the  Promised  One,  why  don't 
you  fast  instead  of  attending  these  banquets? " 
the  disciples  of  John  demanded  of  Him.  And 
the  self-righteous  Pharisees  caught  up  the 
complaint  querulously,  "This  man  is  no 
prophet,"  they  said;  "He  makes  friends  of 
publicans  and  sinners,  and  eateth  with  them.'* 

We  love  Him  for  that  criticism,  for  the 
enemies  that  He  made.  He  dared  to  be  an 
insurgent  in  the  days  when  insurgency  had 
not  become  the  popular  and  easy  thing, 
when  its  penalty  was  death.     He   might  so 


PREFACE  XV 

very  easily  have  been  conventional  and  safe. 
The  established  order  would  have  received 
Him  gladly.  Money  is  always  orthodox;  it 
welcomes  orthodoxy  with  open  arms.  Those 
doctors  who  listened  admiringly  to  His  pene- 
trating questions  when  He  was  a  mere  stripling 
of  twelve  would  have  opened  the  door  of 
opportunity  to  Him  gladly.  He  might  have 
been  a  rabbi  of  commanding  influence:  the 
Sanhedrin  was  an  easy  possibility.  He 
turned  His  back  on  all  that  to  take  His  stand 
on  our  side  —  on  the  side  of  us  who  are  young, 
who  protest  against  special  privilege  because 
we  are  too  new  in  the  world  to  have  accumu- 
lated any  privileges,  and  against  entrenched 
wealth  because  the  glitter  of  it  blinds  the  eye 
of  truth. 

Up  to  the  very  end  of  His  life  there  was 
plenty  of  chance  for  Him  to  make  just  the 
little  concession  that  would  have  saved  Him 
to  power  and  affluence.  If  the  bestowal  of 
only  half  a  loaf  would  have  satisfied  Him  — 
who  was  offering  the  bread  of  life  —  the 
Pharisees  would  have  been  ready  enough  to 
take  the  half.     On  some  of  the  very  last  days 


XVI  PREFACE 

they  invited  Him  to  their  homes:  it  was  His 
chance  to  take  them  over,  to  show  them  that 
after  all  He  was  not  so  dangerous  an  enemy 
to  their  settled  order.  They  were  very  eager 
to  hear  what  He  would  say  at  dinner  that 
night,  to  see  what  He  would  do  —  and  what 
He  did  was  to  pronounce  His  own  death 
sentence.  "I  am  the  Son  of  God,"  He  told 
them.  That  was  his  answer.  It  was  as 
though  Daniel  had  struck  every  individual 
lion  across  the  face. 

It  was  too  late  then  to  hope  for  pardon: 
and  He  sought  none.  His  young  blood  was 
too  hot  to  suffer  any  toleration  of  their 
formalism,  their  churchly  righteousness,  their 
dead  faith.  So  they  killed  Him,  just  as  in 
the  last  year  He  had  known  that  they  would. 
It  was  bitter.  For  He  loved  life,  and  He  was 
so  young;  there  was  so  much  ahead  of  Him, 
so  great  an  opportunity.  We  know  how  He 
felt,  who  see  the  years  stand  loaded  with  gifts 
ahead  of  us.  He  was  eager  to  work,  so  tired 
with  the  stress  of  the  last  days,  that  left  Him 
deserted  even  by  His  disciples.  We  know 
why  He  cried  out  in  the  Garden :  we  can  hear 


PREFACE  XVll 

—  when  we  close  our  eyes  —  the  wail  that 
forced  itself  from  between  clenched  teeth  on 
the  cross.  We  are  His  age:  we  know  Him: 
He  is  ours.  He's  nearer  to  us  who  are  young, 
because  of  that  cry.  And  we  place  Him  at 
the  top  of  our  list  of  heroes  because  in  spite  of 
the  cry  He  was  still  true  to  the  end. 

If  He  were  to  be  in  the  city  today  we  should 
look  for  him  where  the  crowd  is  thickest  — 
in  church  perhaps,  if  it  were  Sunday,  but 
during  the  week  He  spent  little  time  in 
churches.  At  least  not  when  the  sun  was 
warming  the  corn  into  ripeness,  when  all 
Nature  was  luring  tired  men  and  women  away 
to  the  hills.  If  there  were  a  world's  cham- 
pionship series  in  town,  we  might  look  for 
Him  there,  at  least  at  one  of  the  games. 
And  if  not,  then  He  would  be,  we  think, 
somewhere  about  the  busiest  part  of  the 
streets. 

So  we  would  search  until  we  saw  some- 
one stop  in  the  middle  of  the  way  to  lift  a 
little  child  and  dry  its  tears,  or  to  carry  a 
cripple  over  the  torrent  of  traffic,  or  to  chat 
with  the  corner  loafer  out  of  whose  eyes  light 


XVm  PREFACE 

seemed  to  have  died.  And  we  would  go  up  to 
Him  quite  frankly  and  openly,  as  we  know 
He  would  want  us  to  do.  Then  with  the 
full-muscled,  powerful  grip  of  His  hand  still 
tingling  on  our  palms,  we  should  be  reconciled, 
almost,  to  His  death;  almost  glad  that  they 
cut  Him  off  while  the  hot  blood  of  idealism 
still  coursed,  uncooled,  through  His  veins, 
while  youth  had  yielded  not  one  niggardly 
concession  to  the  deadening  conservatism  of 
years.  We  should  forgive  them,  almost,  that 
they  saved  Him  to  us,  that  He  died  while  He 
was  still  our  own  —  still  strong,  still  full- 
blooded  and  f ull-f aithed :  always,  through 
the  ascending  ages,  a  young  man's  Jesus. 


A  YOUNG  MAN  S  JESUS 


A  YOUNG  MAN'S  JESUS 
I 

''AND  OVERTHREW  THEIR   TABLES'* 

NOBODY  knows  how  many  thousands 
of  strangers  there  were  in  Jerusalem 
on  that  April  morning.  The  streets 
were  decked  with  palms  and  banners,  as 
modern  streets  sometimes  are  on  the  occasion 
of  a  great  convention  or  a  world's  fair;  but 
the  number  of  visitors  —  so  many  times  the 
total  population  —  far  exceeded  anything  that 
modern  cities  know,  and  indeed  placed  a  tre- 
mendous tax  upon  the  resources  of  Jerusalem, 
accustomed  though  it  was  to  these  annual 
festivals.  Every  room  in  lodging-houses  or 
private  residences  was  jammed  with  pilgrims; 
as  far  outside  the  walls  as  one  could  see,  tents 
stretched  away  toward  the  nearby  villages; 
and  some  pilgrims,  disappointed  in  their 
search  for  shelter,  had  spent  the  night  in  the 
streets,  or  curled  up  within  the  shadow  of 
the  larger  buildings. 


4  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

The  night  before  had  been  a  troubled  one, 
such  as  always  preceded  the  great  Feast  of  the 
Passover.  Long  after  darkness  had  fallen 
the  streets  were  still  full  of  people  —  some 
hurrying  home  from  the  houses  of  friends, 
where  they  had  spent  the  evening;  others 
searching  for  a  place  to  sleep;  still  others, 
driven  merely  by  curiosity  and  made  restless 
by  the  presence  of  the  crowd,  wandering  here 
and  there  seeking  excitement.  And  there  was 
plenty  to  be  found.  Here  a  drove  of  cattle 
on  their  way  to  the  Temple,  in  preparation 
for  the  sacrifices,  collided  with  a  pack  train 
from  the  North  country;  and  while  the 
frightened  animals  scattered  in  all  directions, 
the  owners  heaped  blows  and  maledictions  on 
each  other.  A  few  blocks  beyond  a  Roman 
soldier  caught  up  a  petty  thief  prowling  about 
the  goods  of  the  pilgrims,  and  carried  him 
away  to  the  citadel.  All  night  long  the 
streets  rang  with  the  hoofs  of  incoming 
caravans  and  the  shouts  of  tired  travelers. 
There  was  little  sleep  in  Jerusalem  on  the 
night  before  the  great  day:  the  first  rays  of 
the  rising  sun  found  the  whole  population 


AND  OVERTHREW  THEIR  TABLES   5 

stirring,  tired-eyed  and  somewhat  ill-tempered, 
but  expectant. 

The  Young  Man  from  Nazareth  had  spent 
the  night  with  friends  outside  the  walls, 
partly  to  gratify  their  desire  and  partly  that 
He  might  catch  His  first  view  of  the  city  under 
the  gilding  light  of  the  morning  sun.  He  had 
never  lost  the  memory  of  His  first  view  of  it 
eighteen  years  before,  when  as  a  boy.  His  father 
and  mother  had  brought  Him  to  the  Temple 
for  the  ceremony  that  stamped  Him  oflicially 
a  *'  son  of  the  law."  He  had  traveled  hard  the 
day  before,  and  was  thankful  for  a  chance  to 
pass  the  night  in  the  relative  quiet  of  the 
open  country.  But  even  outside  the  walls  He 
found  little  opportunity  for  sleep.  The  group 
of  friends  who  had  started  with  Him  from 
GaHlee  had  grown  to  much  larger  proportions 
during  the  day's  journeying,  as  the  word  was 
passed  about  that  He,  too,  traveled  to  the 
Feast.  By  night-time  there  were  several 
hundred;  and  long  after  the  stars  were  out, 
they  piled  wood  upon  the  fire  and  sat  Hstening 
to  His  parables'and  plying  Him  with  questions. 
When  at  last  they  left  Him,  He  walked  out  a 


6  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

long  way  under  the  stars  alone;  for  the  things 
that  He  had  heard  during  the  day  burned 
deep  into  His  soul  and  He  wanted  a  time  to 
think  and  to  plan. 

Most  of  what  He  had  heard  was  bitter 
complaint,  the  deep-toned  protest  of  the  poor 
against  the  exactions  of  a  heartless  aristocracy. 
These  were  peasants  who  were  making  the 
journey  to  Jerusalem,  and  for  most  of  them  it 
was  the  great  occasion  of  their  lives.  Some, 
to  be  sure,  came  every  year,  but  others  had 
saved  and  looked  forward  to  this  one  coming 
as  the  crowning  experience  of  a  lifetime  — 
a  memory  to  be  treasured  and  handed  down 
to  their  children.  For  months  they  had  been 
making  active  preparations:  those  with  any 
money  had  taken  it  to  the  booth  of  the  money- 
changers in  their  local  communities  and  had 
changed  it  for  the  currency  of  the  Temple 
(for  only  the  coinage  of  the  priests  might  be 
used  in  the  Temple  offerings),  paying  the 
exorbitant  rate  of  exchange  that  was  charged. 
The  poorer  worshipers,  in  whose  lives  actual 
silver  was  unknown,  had  gone  through  their 
slender  herds  to  select  a  kid  without  blemish 


AND  OVERTHREW  THEIR  TABLES   7 

or  a  pair  of  doves  with  which  to  make  their 
sacrifices.  They  had  chosen  their  offerings 
gladly,  even  though  they  could  little  afford 
the  cost  —  proud  that,  poor  as  they  were, 
they  might  still  share  in  the  great  festival  of 
the  nation;  and  cheerily  they  had  set  out 
from  their  homes  on  the  long,  tiring  trip. 
Now  that  they  were  at  the  very  gates  of  the 
city,  their  hearts  sank;  they  wished  almost 
that  they  had  not  come. 

For  they  knew  well  the  humiliation  that 
awaited  them  on  the  morrow;  all  day  long 
they  had  trembled  in  apprehension  of  it. 
Other  travelers  from  their  home  towns,  who 
had  made  the  journey  in  previous  years,  had 
told  them  what  they  might  expect.  At  the 
very  door  of  the  Temple,  standing  between 
them  and  the  altar  of  their  God,  were  the 
agents  of  the  priests  whom  they  might  not 
pass  until  they  had  submitted  to  every  manner 
of  extortion  and  humiliation.  One  pilgrim 
told  how  his  sister,  a  poor  widow,  had  come 
up  to  the  Temple  the  year  before,  bringing  a 
pair  of  doves  which  she  had  purchased  with 
her   meagre   savings.     And   at   the   gate   a 


8  A     YOUNG     MAN*S     JESUS 

priest  had  motioned  her  back  scornfully,  pro- 
nouncing her  offering  blemished  and,  driving 
her  across  to  the  counters  of  those  that  sold 
doves,  had  forced  her  to  spend  her  last  pennies 
for  another  sacrifice.  Another  had  spoken 
of  his  cousin,  who,  in  changing  his  money  into 
the  Temple  coin,  had  been  robbed  by  the 
money-changers,  who  belonged  to  the  family 
of  Annas,  the  High  Priest;  and  almost  every 
one  of  the  travelers,  it  seemed,  had  a  similar 
story  of  outrage  which  he  poured  into  the 
ears  of  the  Young  Man  from  Nazareth,  until 
His  blood  flamed. 

That  night,  under  the  stars,  their  stories 
beat  through  His  heart,  one  after  the  other, 
each  one  adding  to  the  fire  of  His  indignation. 
He  was  young;  He  was  an  idealist;  He  had 
been  raised  up  to  look  with  reverence  on  the 
capital  city  of  His  people,  and  to  consider 
the  Temple  as  housing  at  once  the  spiritual 
and  civil  authority  of  the  nation.  To  find 
its  precincts  thus  desecrated,  its  worship 
eaten  by  greed  and  made  the  pretext  for  the 
oppression  of  the  poor,  stirred  every  red 
corpuscle   of   His  young   manhood. 


AND  OVERTHREW  THEIR  TABLES   9 

He  thought,  as  He  walked  there  under  the 
stars,  of  Jeremiah,  who  had  cried  out  against 
the  "prophets  that  prophesy  falsely  and  the 
priests  that  bear  rule  by  their  means";  and 
against  the  "shepherds  that  destroy  and 
scatter  the  sheep  of  my  pasture."  He  re- 
membered how  Ezekiel  had  opened  the  vials 
of  his  wrath  upon  the  whole  priestly  tribe 
because,  "like  roaring  lions,"  they  devoured 
the  people  and  oppressed  the  poor.  Against 
all  this  heartless  formalism,  this  priestly 
usurpation,  Isaiah,  too,  had  uttered  burning 
protest;  his  words  ran  through  the  heart  of 
the  Young  Man  of  Nazareth  —  the  words 
of  Jehovah,  summoning  the  people  away  from 
petty  observances  and  meaningless  fasts: 

"Behold  ye  fast  for  strife  and  contention  ...  is  this 

the  fast  that  I  have  chosen? 
"Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  have  chosen,  to  loose  the 

bonds  of  wickedness,  to  undo  the  bands  of  the  yoke, 

and  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free?  " 

"To  undo  the  bands  of  the  yoke"  —  the 
Young  Man  said  it  over  to  Himself  again  and 
again,  as  He  walked  there  alone  under  the 
stars.     The  words  were  still  upon  His  lips 


10  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

as  He  lay  down  to  sleep;  and  the  next  morn- 
ing, when  the  little  group  of  His  intimate 
followers  came  to  call  Him,  they  found  Him 
already  dressed,  a  look  of  set  determination 
upon  His  fine,  sun-browned  face. 

The  people  would  have  engaged  Him  in 
further  conversation,  as  they  traversed  the 
little  distance  that  separated  them  from  the 
city,  but  He  was  strangely  silent  and  thought- 
ful. Even  their  exclamations  of  joy,  as  they 
saw  the  rich  rays  of  the  morning  sun  touch 
one  tower  of  the  Temple  buildings  after  an- 
other into  golden  radiance,  did  not  arouse 
Him.  At  length  they  dropped  a  little  behind, 
leaving  Him  to  walk  alone;  and  so  He  led 
them,  His  eyes  fixed  on  the  city  before  Him, 
through  the  gates,  and  straight  to  the  outer 
court  of  the  Temple. 

The  hour  was  still  early,  but  the  Temple 
area  seethed  and  roared  in  a  scene  of  strife 
and  confusion.  On  one  side  were  the  shambles 
of  the  cattle  dealers,  surrounded  by  a  gesticu- 
lating mob  of  intending  purchasers.  Men's 
voices  rose  into  fierce,  strident  tones  as  they 
protested  against  the  extortionate  prices  and 


AND    OVERTHREW    THEIR    TABLES       11 

pleaded  for  consideration.  They  might  as 
well  have  lifted  up  their  voices  to  the  pillars 
as  to  the  hard  faced  priests  and  traffickers,  so 
solidly  entrenched  behind  the  protection  of 
their  monopoly.  Around  every  money- 
changer's table  men  and  women,  and  some- 
times whole  families,  alternately  threatened 
and  pled  in  their  bargaining;  and  as  each 
pilgrim  left,  elated  or  broken,  according  to 
his  success,  another  pressed  forward  to  change 
his  hard-earned  pennies  for  the  priestly  shekels. 
Across  the  court  were  the  cages  crowded 
thick  with  doves;  and  here  the  poor  threw 
themselves  piteously  upon  the  mercy  of 
the  traders.  The  clamor  of  dispute  carried 
beyond  the  veil  that  shut  off  the  Temple  from 
the  altar  and  echoed  about  the  Holy  of  Holies. 
But  sadder  even  than  the  noise  of  protest 
was  the  stolid  indifference  with  which  the  great 
company  of  worshipers  went  about  their 
sacrifices.  The  Temple  had  always  been  a 
market-place  within  their  memory ;  the  priests 
had  always  robbed.  It  did  not  occur  to 
them  that  there  was  anything  offensive  about 
the    scene    this    morning:     they    had    never 


12  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

stopped  to  ask  themselves  whether  this  great 
ghttering  tomb,  with  its  snarhng  crowd  of 
traders,  were  fit  to  represent  the  faith  of  their 
fathers.  Their  worship  had  become  a  thing 
detestable  and  they  did  not  even  suspect  it; 
their  very  souls  were  dead. 

No  detail  of  the  shameful  scene  escaped  the 
Man  of  Nazareth.  He  saw  the  little  peasant 
family  at  one  side,  bowed  in  tears  because 
the  pitiful  sum  they  had  scraped  together 
was  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  greed  of 
the  sellers;  He  saw  the  peasant  mother 
carry  her  doves  tremblingly  before  the 
cruel  eye  of  the  examining  priest  only  to 
have  them  spurned  and  thrown  back  con- 
temptuously; He  saw  the  cynical  smile  of 
the  overseeing  priest,  who  passed  from  table 
to  table,  calculating  the  profits  of  the  day's 
transactions. 

While  He  had  been  watching  He  had  picked 
up  from  the  floor  a  few  pieces  of  cord  and 
braided  them  together  into  a  whip,  as  the  boys 
in  Nazareth  had  often  done.  And  suddenly. 
His  cheeks  red  with  righteous  anger.  His 
eyes  aflame,  He  stepped  forward  to  the  table 


AND    OVERTHREW    THEIR    TABLES      13 

of  the  money-changer  nearest  Him,  and 
flung  it  half  across  the  court.  Before  the 
astonished  crowd  knew  what  had  happened 
He  strode  on  to  the  next  and  overturned  it, 
and  the  next.  Then  across  to  the  counters  of 
the  dove-sellers  He  pushed,  and  throwing 
wide  the  gates  of  their  cages  loosed  a  perfect 
flock  of  doves.  A  mighty  cheer  went  up  from 
the  crowd  as  they  caught  the  significance  of 
His  outburst.  The  bolder  spirits  put  them- 
selves at  His  back  and  when  He  approached 
the  shambles  where  a  wild-eyed  little  group 
of  dealers  opposed  themselves,  there  were  a 
hundred  willing  hands  to  brush  them  aside 
and  loose  the  fastenings  of  the  cattle.  In  a 
moment  the  whole  court  was  in  pandemonium. 
Tables  were  upset;  doves  fluttered  into  the 
Temple  towers,  and  frightened  cattle  rushed 
madly  through  the  gates  and  out  into  the 
streets.  Only  the  Man  of  Nazareth,  among 
all  the  frenzied  crowd,  was  calm.  With  the 
whip  which  He  had  braided  together,  He 
lashed  the  horde  of  thieves  and  oppressors 
before  Him,  until  the  last  one  had  been 
scourged  from  the  court,  and  He  stood  amid 


14  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

the  wreck  of  His  rebellion,  in  the  midst  of  the 
glorying  crowd  of  pilgrims. 

Even  the  Roman  soldiers,  stationed  in  the 
outer  courts  of  the  Temple  to  maintain  order, 
were  spellbound  at  the  splendor  of  His 
single-handed  victory.  But  the  priests  could 
not  restrain  their  fury.  Rushing  up  to  Him 
they  raised  their  hands  in  impotent  rage  and 
demanded  to  know  who  He  was  and  by  what 
authority  He  did  these  things.  Looking  down 
at  them  —  the  great  men  and  rulers  of  His 
nation — in  the  calm  supremacy  of  moral  cour- 
age, the  Young  Man  from  Nazareth,  the 
carpenter,   unlearned  in  any  school,  replied: 

"It  is  written,  My  house  shall  be  called  a 
house  of  prayer  for  all  the  nations,  but  ye 
have  made  it  a  den  of  robbers." 

That  day  the  whole  city  rang  with  His 
name,  and  crowds  of  delighted  pilgrims  fol- 
lowed Him  wherever  He  walked.  But  the 
Young  Man  of  Nazareth  went  quietly  about 
His  business,  expounding  His  views  to  those 
who  questioned  Him,  and  renewing  His  ac- 
quaintance with  such  friends  as  happened  to 
be  in  the  city.     His  anger  had  cooled  and  He 


AND    OVERTHREW    THEIR    TABLES       15 

was  again  the  quiet  teacher,  the  lovable  social 
companion.  The  cheers  of  the  populace  con- 
fused Him  no  more  than  had  the  imprecations 
of  the  priests.  Indeed  His  magnificent  self- 
possession,  in  the  face  of  a  popularity  so  sweep- 
ing and  so  suddenly  acquired,  created  a 
marked  impression  on  the  minds  of  the  more 
influential  men  in  the  city.  They  questioned 
among  themselves  who  He  might  be,  and 
whether  any  use  could  be  made  of  His  unusual 
gift  for  leadership. 

Only  a  few  weeks  before,  so  the  report  had 
it,  He  had  come  out  of  a  carpenter  shop  in 
Nazareth  and  had  presented  Himself  for  bap- 
tism to  John,  the  remarkable  young  preacher 
who  had  recently  been  gathering  multitudes 
of  listeners  and  even  converts  on  the  shores 
of  the  Jordan.  The  two  had  known  each 
other  in  youth;  were,  in  fact,  cousins,  each 
endowed  in  wonderful  measure  with  the  ability 
to  draw  other  young  men  to  Himself  by 
personal  magnetism  and  the  vigor  and  uncon- 
ventionality  of  their  thought. 

John  had  already  scored  a  tremendous 
success.     Even  some  of  the  chief  men  of  the 


16  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

capital  had  thought  it  worth  while  to  journey 
out  to  his  camp  by  the  river  side;  and  among 
the  populace  the  impression  was  fast  gaining 
currency  that  he  was  none  other  than  the 
promised  Messiah,  who  should  throw  off  the 
Roman  yoke  and  restore  the  throne  to  Jeru- 
salem. 

Yet  on  the  day  when  the  Young  Man  from 
Nazareth  presented  Himself  for  baptism  a 
remarkable  thing  had  happened.  John,  a 
man  of  national  prominence,  had  drawn  back 
from  this  unknown  young  convert  as  though 
reluctant  to  administer  the  rite.  The  de- 
nouncer of  rulers  had  shown  himself  suddenly 
diffident  in  the  presence  of  a  simple  carpenter, 
and  to  the  gaping  crowd  had  announced: 

"This  is  He  of  whom  I  spoke  to  you, 
the  latchet  of  whose  shoes  I  am  unworthy  to 
unloose." 

What  did  he  mean?  Who  was  this  strange 
young  man  who,  having  lived  for  thirty  years 
in  a  country  village,  could  in  a  single  day  make 
Himself  the  most  prominent  figure  in  a  capital  .'^ 
What  depths  of  power  lay  behind  that  majestic 
exterior   to  carry  Him   so  faultless   through 


AND    OVERTHREW    THEIR    TABLES      17 

these  unprecedented  experiences?  What 
vision  had  He  received  to  transform  Him 
suddenly  from  a  carpenter  into  the  Champion 
of  Pure  Rehgion,  the  Defier  of  Oppression? 

His  act  was  the  talk  of  the  feast:  and  at  the 
end  of  that  week  an  army  of  visitors  left  the 
city  to  scatter  the  report  of  it  into  thousands 
of  little  towns  and  hamlets  throughout  the 
known  world.  From  that  day,  wherever  He 
went,  there  was  eagerness  to  hear  the  Man 
of  Nazareth,  the  Young  Man,  who,  single- 
handed,  had  set  the  power  of  His  idealism 
against  the  oppressors  and  pillagers  of  a 
nation. 


II 

''AND  WAXED  STRONG'* 

IT  was  no  feeling  of  awe  before  a  flaming 
moral  purpose  that  swept  that  crowd  of 
pillagers  out  of  the  Temple;  nor  was  it 
altogether  their  fear  of  the  shouting  wor- 
shipers who  so  readily  took  the  Young  Man's 
part.  He,  Himself  —  stalwart,  broad-shoul- 
dered, perfectly  developed  —  was  the  real 
reason  for  their  eagerness  to  give  way  before 
Him.  As  that  lash  of  cords  was  lifted  and 
swept  over  their  faces  or  across  their  necks, 
the  loose  sleeve  of  His  garment  fell  back  to 
reveal  a  forearm  on  which  the  muscles  stood 
out  like  knots  of  iron;  against  such  an  arm 
and  such  a  shoulder  there  was  not  one  among 
the  flabby  multitude  who  cared  to  risk  him- 
self. 

Into  the  muscles  which  swung  that  lash 
thirty  years  of  outdoor  labor  had  poured 
their   best   of   manly  strength.     Indeed,  His 


AND     WAXED     STRONG  19 

preparation  for  that  moment  had  started  at 
the  very  instant  of  His  birth.  His  father  and 
mother  had  been  on  a  journey  up  to  Bethlehem 
at  the  time,  where  they  were  to  be  numbered 
with  their  neighbors  for  the  levying  of  a 
Roman  tax.  On  the  long  ride  that  preceded 
His  birth  His  mother  had  carried  Him  across 
the  steep  hills  of  Galilee,  as  Napoleon's  mother 
is  said  to  have  borne  her  son  in  her  bosom 
while  she  traveled  with  his  father  to  the  war. 
When  they  reached  Bethlehem,  long  after 
night  had  fallen,  it  was  to  find  every  room  in 
the  inn  taken  and  no  place  available  for  them 
except  a  stall  in  one  of  the  stables.  There 
He  was  born,  surrounded  by  the  animals  and 
the  animal-like  men  who  tended  them,  and 
they  cradled  Him  on  a  pillow  of  straw  in  the 
manger.  A  weakling  child  would  have  per- 
ished in  that  first  night,  but  He,  to  whom 
peasant  parents  had  given  the  only  fortune 
which  peasants  can  give  —  a  sound  body  and 
rich  red  blood  —  laughed  Himself  into  the 
world,  a  vigorous,  perfectly -formed  child. 

From  that  day  His  hfe  was  spent  in  the 
open.     The  parents  traveled  from  Bethlehem 


20  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

down  into  Egypt,  and  after  some  years  made 
the  long,  hard  journey  back  into  GaHlee  and 
settled  in  the  Kttle  town  of  Nazareth.  By 
the  time  of  that  return,  He,  though  still  a 
child,  was  deemed  old  enough  to  walk,  because 
there  were  younger  children  in  the  family, 
and  so,  at  His  father's  side.  He  trudged  along, 
leading  the  ass  on  which  His  mother  rode, 
covering  on  foot  the  whole  hard  way,  which 
would  have  taxed  the  strength  of  many  a 
grown  man.  If  He  sometimes  grew  very 
weary  with  the  walking,  as  He  doubtless  did; 
and  if  the  foraging,  in  search  of  fagots  and 
thorns  for  the  fire,  left  Him  sometimes  utterly 
fatigued,  the  nights  spent  in  sleep  under  the 
stars  replenished  His  vigor.  Every  day  that 
passed  added  to  the  hardness  of  His  little 
muscles,  and  the  perfect  development  of 
His  strength. 

His  father,  a  stalwart  peasant  of  simple 
thought  but  generous  nature,  was  a  carpenter 
by  trade;  and  when  at  length  the  long  journey 
was  completed  and  the  family  settled  in  Naz- 
areth, He  opened  there  his  httle  shop.  Car- 
pentering in  those  days  was  no  gentle  business. 


AND     WAXED     STRONG  21 

It  was  centuries  before  the  invention  of  the 
sawmill,  or  the  steam-driven  plane.  He  who 
contracted  for  the  erection  of  a  house  under- 
took the  whole  task,  from  the  excavation  for 
the  foundations  to  the  last  finishing  touches 
of  the  interior.  Except  for  the  brief  hours 
that  He  spent  in  the  Synagogue,  acquiring 
the  education  of  the  orthodox  Jewish  lad, 
Jesus  was  busy  throughout  the  day  with  his 
father  in  the  roughest  sort  of  physical  toil. 

Afterwards,  when  the  crowds  that  used  to 
gather  along  the  Sea  of  Galilee  to  listen  to 
His  stories,  heard  Him  speak  of  the  "man 
who  built  his  house  upon  a  rock,"  of  the 
"axe  being  laid  to  the  root  of  the  tree,"  they 
had  no  doubt  that  He  knew  what  He  was 
talking  about.  They  remembered  seeing  Him 
dig  at  the  hard  earth  of  Nazareth's  hills  to 
make  a  place  for  foundations  that  should  not 
be  affected  by  wind  or  storm;  they  had  not 
forgotten  how,  on  many  a  day.  He  had  gone 
off  into  the  mountains,  an  axe  across  His 
shoulder,  to  hew  out  the  sturdy  timbers, 
nor  how  at  nightfall  they  had  watched  Him 
trudging  back,  often  with  a  beam  across  His 


22  A     YOUNG     man's      JESUS 

shoulders  that  would  have  been  a  load  for 
a  strong  man. 

As  He  grew  in  stature  and  in  years,  there 
developed  in  Him  a  remarkable  capacity, 
not  merely  for  personal  work  at  His  trade, 
but  for  the  direction  of  other  workmen; 
His  father  recognized  it  and  allowed  Him  a 
measure  of  authority  over  the  men.  Thus, 
when  the  father  died,  Jesus,  the  Carpen- 
ter-son, took  up  the  responsibility  of  the 
family's  support,  where  Joseph,  the  carpenter- 
father,  had  laid  it  down.  The  later  years 
of  His  young  manhood  were  spent  partly  in 
work  of  supervision,  which  added  to  that 
splendid  endowment  of  natural  executive 
ability  that  played  so  great  a  part  in  His 
pubhc  life.  But  the  work  with  His  own  hands 
was  never  entirely  given  up.  For  the  first 
thirty  years  of  His  young  life,  hardly  a  day 
passed,  except  the  Sabbath,  when  He  did  not 
spend  some  hours  in  forcing  a  saw  through 
the  hard  fiber  of  beams  and  boards  or  smooth- 
ing their  rough  sides  with  a  carpenter's  plane. 
And  even  on  the  Sabbath  He  could  not  often 
content  Himself  to  remain  quietly  indoors. 


AND     WAXED     STRONG  23 

Indeed,  there  were  those  in  the  gossipy  village 
who  criticised  Him  because  He  so  often  pre- 
ferred to  spend  the  afternoon  in  a  walk  among 
the  surrounding  hills,  sometimes  going  beyond 
the  narrow  hmits  of  the  prescribed  "Sabbath 
day's  journey,"  and  frequently  —  to  the 
greater  •  scandal  of  the  critical  —  taking  a 
group  of  laughing  children  with  Him. 

But  such  criticism  as  this  caused  little  dis- 
comfort to  the  big-framed,  powerful,  young 
carpenter.  Indeed  it  was  completely  buried 
beneath  the  general  tribute  of  respect  which 
the  community  gave  to  Him.  Older  men 
grew  to  value  Him  because  He  was  the  best 
and  most  skilful  workman  in  town,  and 
because  His  judgment  in  business  matters 
proved  so  unvaryingly  good.  Among  the 
younger  element  He  developed  an  easy  and 
uncontested  leadership.  He  was  the  strongest 
among  them;  and  ultimately  His  superiority 
was  so  well  established  and  so  unquestioned 
that  He  was  ruled  out  of  their  contests,  and 
became  a  sort  of  arbiter  in  the  village,  whose 
judgments  were  generally  respected,  not 
merely  because  of  their  wisdom  but  also  be- 


24  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

cause  it  was  known  that  He,  Himself,  if  He 
would,  could  give  them  force. 

So  He  "waxed  strong"  in  thirty  years  of 
wholesome  outdoor  work  and  play,  at  first 
only  dimly  realizing  how  magnificent  an 
asset  He  was  building  up  for  the  work  and 
trials  that  were  to  come. 

For  only  a  man  of  transcending  physical 
power  could  have  met  the  tests  that  were 
laid  upon  Him  after  He  left  the  carpenter  shop 
and  entered  upon  the  three  years  of  His  pubHc 
work.  He  was  poor,  of  course,  and  rather 
gloried  in  it;  but  poverty,  which  makes 
necessary  such  privations  as  He  had  to  endure, 
has  proved  the  undoing  of  many  a  man  of 
strong  will  and  average  physique.  They 
asked  Him  one  day  where  He  lived,  and  He 
told  them  that  He  had  no  home,  that  He  lay 
down  at  night  and  slept  wherever  He  happened 
to  be.  "The  birds  have  nests,"  He  said,  "and 
foxes  have  holes,  but  I  have  nowhere  to  lay 
my  head."  Some  nights,  of  course.  He  stayed 
with  friends,  but  many  and  many  a  night  He 
must  have  spent,  with  the  sturdier  of  His 
fishermen-disciples,  stretched  under  the  blue 


AND     WAXED     STRONG  25 

sky.  Yet  He  was  never  sick;  never  tired; 
each  morning  He  could  greet  the  sunshine 
with  the  glad  smile  of  perfect  health,  and 
begin  His  long  day  of  tramping  from  village 
to  village  in  the  open  air.  He  was  an  out- 
door man,  the  sort  that  we  have  come  to  envy 
in  these  shut-in  modern  days.  Even  in  the 
time  of  His  greatest  popularity,  when  He 
might  have  dined  every  night  in  one  of  the 
great  houses  of  the  capital.  He  preferred  to 
slip  away  at  nightfall  to  the  Mount  of  Olives. 
His  deep  chest  craved  the  sweetness  of  country 
air;  He  loved  to  be  awakened  by  the  playing 
of  the  sun  across  His  bronzed  face. 

In  Capernaum  one  day  the  crowd  had  been  » 
thick  about  Him;  the  house  where  He  was 
stopping  was  packed  with  a  multitude  that 
spread  out  into  the  adjoining  streets.  Sud- 
denly there  was  a  commotion  on  the  outside 
and  four  men  pushed  through  to  the  front 
door,  carrying  a  lame  man  on  a  stretcher. 
In  the  face  of  the  invalid  was  a  look  of  pathetic 
eagerness;  he  had  been  sick  a  long  time,  and 
had  never  expected  to  walk  again.  But  that 
day  his  friends  had  come  to  tell  him  about  the 


26  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

new  Teacher  who  was  in  the  city,  in  whose 
marvelous  health-radiating  presence  scores 
of  sick  people  had  been  made  well.  He  had 
determined  to  see  this  Teacher,  whatever  the 
cost.  His  four  friends  succeeded  in  getting 
him  to  the  door  of  the  house  and  there,  on  the 
very  threshold,  his  wish  seemed  doomed  to 
disappointment.  Those  inside  the  door  were 
too  eagerly  intent  to  give  way  even  to  an 
invalid.  His  shrill  entreaties  would  not  move 
them;  they  would  not  let  him  in :  sorrowfully, 
his  four  friends  prepared  to  carry  him  home 
again.  But  the  will  of  the  sick  man  was 
strong  in  spite  of  his  feeble  body.  Rising 
on  his  elbow,  he  directed  them  to  carry 
him  up  the  outside  stairway  to  the  roof, 
and  there  to  let  him  down  through  the  ceiling 
into  the  presence  of  the  Teacher.  And  they 
did. 

Lowered  at  last  to  the  floor,  he  had  his  wish 
gratified.  The  young  Teacher  looked  on  him 
with  eyes  that  were  very  full  of  sympathy. 
Reaching  down  He  took  one  flabby  hand  in 
His  great  strong  grasp,  and,  smiling,  reassur- 
ingly said, 


AND     WAXED     STRONG  27 

*'Son,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee:  rise,  take 
up  thy  bed  and  walk.'* 

A  moment  the  lame  man  hesitated,  stupified. 
"Walk!"  —  it  was  impossible;  he  had  never 
expected  to  walk  again.  Of  course  he  couldn't 
—  and  then  he  looked  into  those  eyes  full 
of  assurance;  he  felt  his  withered  limbs  bathed 
in  the  magnetism  that  radiated  from  that 
body,  so  splendidly  overflowing  with  health, 
and  suddenly,  almost  before  he  knew  it,  he 
was  on  his  feet,  and  had  gathered  the  stretcher 
under  his  arm. 

Had  an  undersized  man,  or  a  weakling,  stood 
there  and  said  to  him,  "Rise  and  walk,"  he 
would  have  smiled  a  wan  smile  of  disappoint- 
ment and  motioned  the  bearers  to  carry  him 
away  again.  But  in  that  presence,  thrilled  by 
the  radiation  of  that  perfect  health  —  health 
such  as  he  had  never  known  or  thought  possible 
for  himself — nothing  seemed  too  difficult  to  be 
attempted.  He  rose  and  walked,  healed,  Uke 
hundreds  in  GaHlee  before  and  after,  by  the 
power  of  their  own  wills,  strengthened  and 
inspired  by  the  glowing  example  of  transcen- 
dent good  health  before  them. 


28  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

Of  the  little  handful  of  people  who  knew 
the  Young  Man  intimately,  nearly  half  of 
those  whose  names  we  have  were  women. 
They  were  women  of  various  sorts,  drawn  to 
him  out  of  very  different  walks  of  life.  There 
was  His  mother,  of  course,  who  without 
wholly  understanding  Him  saw  His  genius 
flower  and  stood  by  Him  adoringly,  even  to 
the  cross.  There  were  Mary  and  Martha, 
two  kindly  maiden  women  who  lived  outside 
of  Jerusalem  in  Bethany;  there  were  women 
who  had  touched  His  garment  as  He  had 
walked  through  the  streets  of  the  city,  and 
had  been  healed  by  the  touch ;  and  there  were 
those  others  —  women  of  the  streets,  some  of 
them  —  who  had  seen  in  His  face  the  first 
glance  of  manly  courtesy  that  had  ever  glowed 
for  them  in  the  eyes  of  any  man,  and  had 
felt  themselves  re-created  from  that  moment. 

Among  this  varied  company  there  was  one 
common  bond  of  union,  their  adoring  love  and 
adulation  for  Him.  The  sallow-faced,  so- 
called  spiritual,  type  of  man  may  stir  the 
mother  instinct  in  a  woman's  breast,  may 
draw  out  upon  himself  a  devotion  that  is  half 


AND     WAXED     STRONG  29 

respect,  half  pity.  But  since  the  world  began 
there  has  been  no  magnet  that  has  really- 
fastened  the  affections  of  women  upon  men 
like  manly  strength.  These  faithful  ones 
who  followed  Him  through  the  successes  and 
disappointments  of  His  ministry,  even  to  the 
last  great  disappointment,  seem  rather  to 
have  felt  His  call  than  heard  it.  He  passed 
them  on  the  road,  robust,  powerful,  but 
splendidly  considerate,  and,  looking  upon 
Him,  they  knew  Him  in  an  instant  for  their 
Lord. 

He  was  a  woman's  man,  in  the  sense  that 
every  man  of  strength  and  conquering  will 
has  been,  but  He  was  a  man's  man  too,  every 
inch  of  Him,  and  in  every  single  moment  of 
His  career.  Power,  decision,  authority  — 
these  were  His  first  disciples.  Walking  along 
the  seashore,  alone,  a  stranger,  and  without 
any  badge  of  authority  or  promise  of  support. 
He  looked  upon  the  fishermen  busy  at  their 
work.  "Follow  me!"  He  said,  and  they 
abandoned  their  nets  instantly  at  His  word. 
So  accustomed  was  He  to  immediate  obedi- 
ence, that  when  one  whom  He  had  summoned 


30  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

asked  first  for  a  few  days  in  which  to  bury  his 
father,  He  was  astonished  at  the  request. 
They  who  walked  with  Him  knew  His  power, 
and  even  those  who  hated  Him,  who  would 
gladly  have  ended  His  ministry  almost  before 
it  was  begun,  felt  themselves  humbled  in  its 
presence. 

And  His  nerves  —  they  were  the  hardened 
servants  of  a  man  of  iron.  Napoleon  once 
said,  "I  have  known  few  men  who  had  courage 
of  the  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  variety"  — 
but  He  had  it.  Even  during  the  last  week, 
when  the  whole  city  was  throbbing  for  or 
against  Him,  when  His  days  were  passed  in  a 
perfect  foment  of  passionate  attack.  He  lay 
down  every  night  to  unbroken  slumber.  He 
was  with  His  disciples  one  night  on  a  boat 
when  there  came  one  of  those  fierce  gales 
which  in  a  few  minutes  can  turn  the  quiet 
surface  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee  into  a  torrent  of 
destruction.  Tugging  at  the  anchor  ropes, 
the  disciples  who  had  sailed  that  Sea  from 
childhood  and  were  not  to  be  foolishly  fright- 
ened gave  themselves  up  for  lost.  The  little 
boat  tossed  terribly;   water  came  in  over  the 


AND     WAXED     STRONG  31 

side  with  every  lurch,  and  it  seemed  as  if  each 
succeeding  wave  must  engulf  it  and  send  it  to 
destruction.  Yet,  through  it  all.  He  slept,  in 
absolutely  untroubled  slumber.  And  when 
at  length  they  roused  Him  by  their  panic- 
stricken  summons.  He  looked  out  over  the 
Sea  in  perfect  equanimity  and  issued  the  few 
quiet  orders  that  were  necessary  to  bring  the 
boat  safely  in  to  shore. 

If  ever  there  was  a  real  man  with  a  real 
man's  nerves,  it  was  He.  Almost  a  year 
before  they  killed  Him  He  knew  that  they 
would  do  it;  and  He  knew  exactly  what 
death  at  their  hands  meant.  He  had  passed 
the  writhing  victims  of  their  fury,  nailed 
to  crosses  along  the  roadside;  He  had  seen 
them  wilt  for  days  before  release  came  from 
their  misery.  For  a  whole  year  He  knew 
that  every  sunset  closed  one  more  of  the 
dwindling  handful  of  days  that  shielded  Him 
from  His  cross.  On  any  morning  He  might 
have  made  the  little  compromise  that  was 
necessary  to  save  His  life.  But  the  thought 
of  retirement,  or  of  compromise,  apparently 
never  came  to  Him.     Calmly,  cheerfully,  un- 


32  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

hesitatingly  He  walked  His  path,  striking 
the  hard  blows  against  hypocrisy  and  oppres- 
sion which  were  to  be  echoed  in  ringing 
strokes  upon  the  nails  of  His  cross  —  and 
never  faltering. 

And  when,  at  length,  they  came  out  into 
the  Garden,  with  a  company  of  soldiers,  to 
take  Him,  there  was  never  the  suggestion  of  a 
tremor  as  He  stood  forth  alone  and  unarmed 
to  face  them. 

*'Are  ye  come  out  as  against  a  robber  with 
swords  and  staves  to  seize  me?"  He  asked 
them,  scornfully.  *'I  was  daily  with  you 
in  the  Temple,  teaching,  and  ye  took  Me 
not." 

"  When  He  spoke  the  whole  brazen  crowd 
of  them  "went  backward  and  fell  to  the 
ground."  There  was  not  an  ounce  of  senti- 
ment in  the  entire  company;  they  were 
Roman  regulars,  trained  to  charge  into  a  mob 
of  women  and  children,  if  necessary,  at  the 
word  of  command.  They  were  iron  men  of 
iron  nerve;  yet  they  acknowledged  a  nerve 
more  iron.  His  every  movement  spoke  of 
physical  perfection;    His  voice  was  vibrant 


AND     WAXED     STRONG  33 

with  the  tones  of  command.  And  they  who 
had  been  trained  from  boyhood  to  obey 
dropped  on  their  knees  involuntarily  before 
the  most  perfect  Young  Man  whom  their  eyes 
had  ever  seen. 


Ill 

''BEHOLD  A   MAN'' 

BUT  physical  strength  and  physical  cour- 
age —  these  are,  after  all,  baser  metals 
in  the  structure  of  a  man.  They  can 
be  bought  at  petty  prices;  an  offer  of  five 
dollars  a  day  will  fill  a  car-barn  with  strike- 
breakers willing  to  toss  their  lives  away  in  a 
quarrel  which  is  none  of  their  affair.  Army 
officers  know  that  when  there  is  a  particularly 
hazardous  bit  of  work  to  be  done  the  offer  of 
a  money  reward  will  invariably  double  the 
number  of  volunteers.  For  a  handful  of 
silver,  or  a  woman's  smile,  or  a  ribbon  to  wear 
on  their  coats,  men  will  laugh  gaily  into  the 
teeth  of  Death,  careless  of  the  swing  of  his 
scythe.  And  though  the  courage  that  is  not 
cowed  by  pain  nor  the  approach  of  death  will 
never  be  so  common  a  thing  that  it  will  fail 
to  excite  our  admiration,  it  does  not  of  itself 
command  our  reverence. 


BEHOLDAMAN  35 

There  is  a  courage  so  much  more  rare  that 
one  is  compelled  to  go  through  history  almost 
with  a  microscope  if  he  would  find  it.  His- 
tories are  filled  with  the  names  of  leaders  rich 
in  bodily  courage,  who  have  wilted  at  the  first 
breath  of  criticism  on  the  part  of  their  own 
families,  have  withered  away  as  their  followers 
dropped  from  them  and  have  died  at  length 
heart-broken,  bitter  haters  of  their  kind;  and 
with  the  names  of  other  leaders,  who,  having 
achieved  a  small  success,  have  lowered  their 
standards  to  attract  the  multitude  and  so 
have  failed  even  while  they  succeeded.  To 
endure  the  taunts  of  relatives,  the  misunder- 
standing of  friends  and  the  treachery  of 
disciples,  to  resist  the  temptation  of  compro- 
mise, even  when  offered  in  the  fairest  guise 
and  with  death  as  an  alternative,  to  be 
rejected  in  succession  by  one's  kindred,  one's 
home  town,  and  one's  nation;  yet  to  speak 
the  truth  as  one  sees  it  fearlessly  and  to  die 
with  a  faith  undimmed  —  that  is  courage  of 
the  almost  unknown  sort.  And  the  Young 
Man  of  Galilee  had  it. 

He  went  back  one  day  to  Nazareth,  where 


36  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

He  had  been  brought  up.  He  had  gone  away 
a  few  months  before,  an  unknown  carpenter; 
He  came  back  as  one  of  the  most  talked-about 
men  in  His  nation.  He  had  put  Himself 
single-handed  against  the  hated  clique  of 
extortioners  at  the  temple  and  had  driven  them 
before  Him  like  a  class  of  bad  children:  in 
Cana  He  had  performed  a  miracle,  the  report 
of  which  had  reached  His  old  associates;  and 
in  Capernaum  there  had  been  mighty  works 
whose  stories  had  been  received  in  the  little 
village  of  His  boyhood  with  an  astonished  in- 
credulity. Surely  the  accounts  must  be  ex- 
aggerated: hadn't  they  known  Him  all  his 
life.'^  wasn't  He  just  Jesus,  the  son  of  Joseph 
the  carpenter?  A  bright  young  man,  to  be 
sure,  but  a  prophet?  —  what  nonsense !  They 
could  hardly  contain  their  curiosity  until  He 
should  appear  again  among  them,  and  when  the 
word  went  round  one  Sabbath  morning  that  He 
would  speak  that  day  in  the  Synagogue,  the 
little  building  was  crowded  to  the  limit  of  its 
capacity.     They  were  eager  to  see  Him. 

And  He  wanted,  too,  to  see  them.     If  only 
His  home  town  might  undertsand  and  appre- 


BEHOLDAMAN  37 

ciate  Him  —  was  there  ever  a  successful  man 
who  has  not  cherished  the  hope?  No  praise 
is  quite  so  sweet,  no  appreciation  so  welcome 
as  that  which  comes  from  the  friends  of  youth. 
Jesus  must  have  shared  something  of  that 
common  feeling.  To  be  known  as  "Jesus  of 
Nazareth"  in  Jerusalem  and  Capernaum,  to 
feel  that  the  sudden  glory  which  had  come  to 
Him  was  reflected  in  a  measure  on  the  little, 
almost  unknown  town  where  He  had  grown 
up,  must  have  given  Him  a  glow  of  satisfac- 
tion. One  can  imagine  how  wistfully  He  had 
looked  forward  to  this  first  visit  home,  in  the 
hope  that  these  His  old  neighbors  might  be- 
come His  first  disciples,  and  His  own  home 
town  perhaps  be  fashioned  into  the  corner- 
stone of  the  new  social  structure  of  which  He 
dreamed. 

It  needed  only  a  glance  around  the  Syna- 
gogue that  Sabbath  morning  to  shatter  the 
hope  He  had  cherished  so  fondly.  Instead  of 
sympathetic  understanding  on  these  faces. 
He  found  only  curiosity  mixed  with  ill-con- 
cealed derision.  He  might  fool  the  outside 
world,  they  seemed  to  say,  but  He  could  not 


38  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

fool  Nazareth:  they  knew  Him;  He  was  just 
a  carpenter,  that  was  all;  they  would  show 
the  cities,  which  had  gone  wild  about  Him, 
that  here  in  His  little  old  home  town  they  were 
not  to  be  so  easily  stampeded.  They  handed 
Him  the  roll  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  and, 
standing  up,  He  read  to  them: 

"The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me 
Because  He  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to 

the  poor. 
He  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the  captives, 
And  recovery  of  sight  to  the  blind; 
To  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised, 
And  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 

Then  very  quietly  He  closed  the  book,  and 
handing  it  back  to  the  attendant,  said  simply : 
"This  day  hath  this  scripture  been  fulfilled  in 
your  ears."  There  was  an  ominous  silence  in 
the  Synagogue:  "The  eyes  of  all  were  fastened 
upon  Him."  He  knew  what  they  were  think- 
ing: they  were  waiting  for  Him  to  do  some 
such  mighty  work  as  He  had  wrought  in 
Capernaum.  But  He  felt  also  the  useless- 
ness  of  it;  the  glances  of  scorn,  of  ignorant 
self-sufficiency,  with  which  they  had  greeted 


BEHOLDAMAN  39 

Him  had  cut  Him  to  the  quick.  He  knew  the 
bitter  truth.  They  would  never  receive  Him; 
never  be  proud  of  Him.  "No  prophet,"  He 
said  to  them  sadly,  "is  acceptable  in  his  own 
country.  Elijah  did  his  great  works  in  a 
foreign  city;  Elisha  could  accomplish  nothing 
except  beyond  the  borders  of  his  own  home." 
With  a  look  around  that  was  filled  with  a 
great  soul- weariness,  He  turned  to  leave  the 
Synagogue,  but  the  scorn  and  wrath  of  the 
people,  which  had  grown  steadily  more  intense 
since  He  closed  the  book,  could  be  restrained 
no  longer.  Rising  with  a  roar  of  anger,  they 
swarmed  about  Him,  hurrying  Him  to  the 
edge  of  a  precipice  on  the  outskirts  of  town, 
where  they  would  have  thrown  Him  over. 
But  the  wrath  which  had  been  sufficient  to 
conceive  His  destruction  grew  suddenly  impo- 
tent when  He  turned  and  faced  them.  The 
memory  of  His  faultless  life,  the  thought  of 
the  respect,  approaching  reverence,  which 
His  moral  grandeur  had  won  for  Him  even  as 
a  youth  among  them,  defeated  their  intent. 
He  took  one  step  toward  them  and  they  melted 
away  Hke  snow,  leaving  His  path  clear  to  the 


40  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

open  country.  So  He  left  His  home  town, 
too  utterly  heart-sick  even  to  look  back;  and 
from  that  day  Nazareth  lost  its  right  to  the 
incomparable  glory  which  might  have  belonged 
to  it,  and  Capernaum  was  called  "His  own 
city." 

His  mother  and  His  brethren  had  been 
witnesses  of  the  defeat.  They  were  simple, 
unimaginative  peasants,  these  kinsfolk  of 
His,  and  as,  from  time  to  time,  reports  were 
brought  of  His  seditionary  speeches,  and  the 
astonishing  works  which  He  did,  they  held 
many  a  worried  family  conference  concerning 
Him.  Such  speeches  would  surely  get  Him 
imprisoned  if  He  continued  them.  The  things 
which  He  did  could  only  be  explained  in  one 
way  —  He  had  gone  mad.  Wliat  the  Phari- 
sees said  about  Him  must  be  true:  He  cast 
out  devils  because  He  Himself  had  a  devil. 
They  were  irritated  and  ashamed:  who  could 
say  that  His  wild  career  might  not  involve 
them  all  in  the  displeasure  of  the  authorities, 
perhaps  landing  them  in  prison  together? 
Once  when  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  was 
about  to  be  held  in  Jerusalem,  they  urged 


BEHOLDAMAN  41 

Him  to  "go  up,"  to  "depart  hence"  and 
taunted  Him,  saying  that  if  He  really  could 
do  the  things  which  He  claimed,  the  place  for 
Him  to  make  His  reputation  was  at  the  Capi- 
tal. Almost  anything  was  better  than  that  He 
should  continue  in  Galilee,  so  near  home.  "For 
even  His  brethren  did  not  believe  on  Him." 

Right  in  the  middle  of  one  of  His  dis- 
courses in  Capernaum,  when  the  crowd  hung 
spellbound  on  His  words,  there  occurred  a 
sudden  interruption  from  the  outside  and  a 
messenger  broke  in  to  tell  Him  that  His 
mother  and  His  brethren  were  there  and 
wished  to  speak  to  Him.  One  can  picture 
the  sharp  look  of  pain  that  cut  across  His 
fine  features.  He  knew  why  they  had  come; 
they  had  been  threatening  it  for  a  long  time. 
They  had  made  up  their  minds  that  He  was 
utterly  crazy  and  they  were  there  to  take  Him 
away  to  an  asylum  where  at  least  He  would 
not  involve  them  in  His  inevitable  ruin. 
Turning  to  the  messenger  He  said  aloud: 

"My  mother  and  my  brethren?  Behold 
these  who  believe  on  me  (pointing  to  His  dis- 
ciples) :  they  are  my  mother  and  my  brethren." 


42  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

They  were  His  real  kindred,  and  many- 
times  they  proved  themselves  worthy  of  the 
distinction;  but  even  their  devotion  could  not 
remove  the  hurt.  When,  later,  the  shouts  of 
"Hosanna"  rang  in  His  ears  and  palms  were 
spread  in  the  streets  before  Him,  even  in  His 
hour  of  triumph.  His  heart  must  have  been 
sore  at  the  thought  that  in  that  crowd  were 
none  of  the  brothers  for  whom  He  had  worked 
and  sacrificed  after  their  father's  death. 
Those  whose  whisper  of  admiration  would 
have  sounded  louder  than  the  cheering  of  the 
crowd  still  felt  the  flush  of  apology  at  the 
mention  of  His  name  —  still  thought  Him 
not   quite   sane. 

Yet  those  who  were  constantly  in  His 
presence  detected  no  slightest  sign  of  bitter- 
ness: one  searches  His  speeches  in  vain  for 
any  word  of  blame.  Indeed  His  disciples 
might  have  felt  Him  well  compensated  for 
the  rejection  at  home  by  the  enthusiastic 
successes  which  attended  the  first  year  of  His 
ministry  everywhere  else.  Crowds  flocked 
to  hear  Him,  returning  day  after  day,  often 
forgetting  to  eat,  in  their  enthusiasm.     Great 


BEHOLDAMAN  43 

men  from  the  cities  were  found  in  His  congre- 
gations, and  it  seemed  to  Him,  as  the  weeks 
lengthened  into  months  and  His  fame  showed 
no  signs  of  diminishing,  that  He  might  indeed 
reahze  His  dream,  that  the  whole  world  might 
come  to  accept  His  message.  It  was  in  these 
hours  of  His  good  fortune  that  He  showed 
that  rarest  type  of  courage,  which  will  not 
accept  the  slightest  compromise  even  as  the 
price  of  assured  success.  Few  men  have  been 
great  enough  to  stand  that  test;  Mohammed 
was  not.  Biographies  of  him  record  the 
deliberate  lowering  of  his  standard  which 
took  place  at  the  beginning  of  his  great  success 
and  apologize  for  it  on  the  ground  that  some 
lowering  is  inevitable  if  the  world  is  to  be 
conquered.  The  Young  Man  of  Galilee  recog- 
nized no  such  necessity. 

One  night  in  the  first  flush  of  His  power, 
immediately  after  He  had  swept  the  traffickers 
from  the  Temple,  He  opened  His  chamber 
door  to  find  a  great  man  of  the  nation,  Nicode- 
mus,  standing  at  the  top  of  the  staircase. 
Self-possessed  as  He  was  under  every  cir- 
cumstance, He  could  not  conceal  a  momentary 


44  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

sign  of  surprise  at  the  visit.  Nicodemus,  one 
of  the  members  of  the  Sanhedrin  —  a  judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court  if  you  will  —  coming 
to  Him,  who  a  few  weeks  before  had  been  an 
unknown  carpenter  in  a  provincial  village  — 
one  might  well  look  to  find  Him  expressing 
His  sense  of  honor  at  the  visit,  and  seeking 
by  every  means  to  win  over  this  notable  man 
to  His  principles.  The  gaining  of  such  an 
adherent  would  mean  much  in  the  promotion 
of  His  ambitions. 

"Rabbi,"  said  the  great  man,  "we  know 
you  are  a  teacher  come  from  God;  for  no  man 
can  do  these  signs  that  you  do  except  God  be 
with  him." 

One  catches  his  breath  involuntarily  at  the 
Young  Man's  answer.  Instead  of  an  assumed 
humility,  instead  of  any  eager  show  of  defer- 
ence, what  is  it  that  He  is  saying.'* 

"Verily,  verily,  I  say  to  you,  Nicodemus, 
except  you  are  born  again  you  cannot  see  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven."  And  a  few  moments 
later  in  the  conversation,  "If  I  have  told  you 
earthly  things  and  you  have  not  believed,  how 
shall  you  believe  if  I  tell  you  heavenly  things.'^ " 


BEHOLDAMAN  45 

This  to  one  of  the  great  men  of  the  nation, 
"a  ruler  of  the  Jews."  For  a  long  time  they 
talked,  the  great  man  undergoing  the  curious 
experience  of  being  taught  by  an  almost 
unknown  young  man  from  an  out  of  the  way 
village.  When  at  length  he  left,  he  who  was 
daily  importuned  to  lend  his  name  to  this 
great  enterprise  or  that,  not  only  had  he  not 
been  urged  to  join  the  new  movement;  he 
had  been  told  that  he  must  utterly  trans- 
form his  life  and  mode  of  thought  before  he 
could  even  be  invited. 

Some  weeks  later  a  traveler  from  Gahlee, 
entering  Jerusalem,  brought  the  names  of 
those  whom  the  Young  Teacher  had  called 
to  be  His  first  disciples.  Nicodemus  glancing 
over  the  list  could  hardly  believe  it  possible 
that  a  young  man  of  such  apparent  good 
judgment  could  have  made  so  glaring  a 
blunder.  The  foolish  Young  Idealist,  who, 
by  just  the  smallest  concession,  by  exhibiting 
only  a  little  willingness  to  conform  to  the 
estabhshed  usages,  might  have  decorated  His 
rolls  with  some  of  the  powerful  names  of 
Jerusalem,  had  chosen  a  handful  of  ignorant 


46  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

fishermen,  and  —  as  if  to  add  insult  to  the 
injury  —  had  named  one  tax-collector,  the 
lowest  and  of  all  classes  the  most  despised  in 
the  eyes  of  the  orthodox  Jew. 

This  was  His  answer  to  those  who  looked 
to  Him  to  lower  His  standards;  here  was  the 
courage  for  which  one  seeks  among  the  other 
leaders  of  the  world  almost  in  vain. 

To  trace  the  workings  of  that  courage 
through  all  the  progress  of  His  public  life 
would  fill  too  many  pages;  but  one  may 
throw  the  light  just  here  and  there  for  a  mo- 
ment, to  show  how  blow  after  blow  was  struck 
at  His  soul  without  loosening  the  fastenings 
of  His  faith  or  detracting  for  one  instant  from 
the  strength  of  His  purpose. 

The  friend  nearer  than  any  other  to  Him 
was  John,  whom  the  public  had  come  to  know 
familiarly  as  "the  Baptist."  John  had  intro- 
duced Him  to  the  people,  and  His  first  disciples 
came  to  Him  because  John  had  pointed  Him 
out  as  a  greater  prophet  than  himself.  He 
had  gloried,  too,  in  the  friendship,  and  when 
Herod  cast  John  into  prison  because  his 
denunciations  of  the  vicious  condition  of  the 


BEHOLDAMAN  47 

court  and  society  were  stirring  up  the  people 
to  a  dangerous  state  of  excitement,  a  shadow 
was  thrown  over  the  heart  of  the  Young  Man 
of  Gahlee  that  was  never  hfted.  He  had 
already  grown  beyond  John's  limited  message, 
which  was  a  merely  destructive  program  of 
criticism  and  denunciation,  and  had  refused 
to  adopt  John's  rigid  mode  of  life.  John  was 
an  ascetic,  living  alone  in  the  desert;  Jesus 
was  a  warm-hearted,  friendly  man,  never  so 
happy  as  when  in  a  crowd:  John  had  imposed 
upon  His  disciples  a  rigorous  regimen  of  fasts 
and  ceremonies;  Jesus  disregarded  both  and 
encouraged  His  disciples  to  disregard  them. 
The  two  men  were  wholly  different  in  thought 
and  method,  but  it  had  not  occurred  to  the 
Young  Man  of  Galilee  that  their  differences 
could  ever  loosen  the  bond  of  their  friendship. 
It  must  have  cut  Him  to  the  very  depths  of 
His  soul,  when  one  day  a  disciple  of  John's, 
sent  from  his  master's  prison  cell,  came  with 
this  wistful,  doubting  question: 

"Are  you  really  the  Messiah  as  I  have 
believed  you  were:  you  who,  instead  of 
fasting,    are    attending    these    dinners    and 


48  A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

banquets;  you  whose  disciples  do  not  fast  or 
even  observe  the  ceremonies  which  the  Mosaic 
law  prescribes  —  are  you  what  I  thought  you, 
or  must  we  look  for  another?" 

And  very  tenderly,  but  sadly,  the  Young 
Man  sent  back  His  reply.  "Go  tell  John 
the  things  that  ye  have  seen  and  heard,  how 
the  blind  see,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the 
dead  are  raised  to  life.     Let  him  judge  from 

this  whether  or  not  I  am  fulfilling  his  hope  of 

>> 
me. 

A  few  weeks  later,  in  the  dungeon  of  Herod's 

castle,  John  paid  the  last  great  penalty  of  his 

courage  and  idealism.     The  Young  Man  of 

Galilee,  when  they  told  Him  of  it,  withdrew 

into  the  hills  alone.     The  best  friend  whom 

He  had  had  in  the  world  had  gone  out  from 

Him,  a  sacrifice  to  the  brutality  and  hate  of 

the    social    order    which    He,    Himself,    was 

laboring   to   transform.     It   came   over   Him 

then  with  fresh  and  distressing  clearness  that 

they,   who  had   destroyed   John,   would   one 

day    compass    His    destruction    also.     How 

long  He  remained  alone  with  His  sorrow  we 

do  not  know,  but  when  He  came  out  there 


BEHOLDAMAN  49 

was  no  sign  of  weakening  upon  Him,  nothing 
in  His  face  to  indicate  what  He  had  passed 
through,  except  a  finer  radiance,  a  determina- 
tion more  fixed. 

In  hard  and  quick  succession  the  blows  were 
struck  after  that.  The  disciples  for  whom 
He  had  done  so  much  were  loyal  to  the  extent 
of  their  ability  —  but  there  were  times  when 
the  petty  limitations  imposed  by  their  igno- 
rance and  trifling  ambition  tried  Him  to  a  point 
that  would  have  exhausted  a  patience  less 
than  infinite.  Too  often,  when  He  returned 
to  them,  stung  by  the  taunts  and  controversies 
of  the  crowd,  it  was  only  to  find  Himself 
plunged  into  a  more  trying  atmosphere  of 
misunderstanding  and  dissension.  Yet  His 
regard  for  them.  His  faith  that  ultimately 
they  would  prove  themselves  worthy,  never 
faltered.  Almost  to  the  very  last  they  mis- 
understood the  real  purpose  of  His  work  and 
message,  though  He  repeated  it  to  them  time 
and  again  in  the  quiet  of  their  talks  together. 

When  the  fickle  multitude  came  finally  to 
beUeve  that  He  was  not  destined  to  give  power 
and  leadership  to  their  latent  revolt  against 


50  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

the  Romans  —  "whereupon  many  of  His 
disciples  went  back  and  walked  no  more  with 
Him"  —  the  little  group  of  His  intimate 
friends  were  utterly  crushed  at  the  destruction 
of  their  hope.  But  He,  though  the  burden 
of  disappointment  was  far  heavier  upon  His 
heart,  gave  no  outward  sign  of  discouragement. 
With  His  eyes  fixed  upon  the  end  which  He 
knew  to  be  inevitable,  and  without  which  — 
as  He  had  come  to  see  so  clearly  —  the  wider 
results  and  the  after-success  of  His  work  could 
not  be  He  pressed  steadily  forward.  He  had 
lost  His  home  town;  His  own  brethren  had 
turned  contemptuously  from  Him;  His  best 
friend  had  died,  tortured  with  doubt;  the 
great  crowd  of  His  followers  had  fallen  away; 
and  even  those  who  had  been  His  intimates, 
whom  He  had  honored  with  the  name  of 
*' kindred"  had  failed  utterly  to  grasp  the 
meaning  of  His  work.  All  this  He  had  borne 
without  a  quaver,  and  to  it  all  there  was  added 
a  last  drop  in  the  cup  of  His  trial.  One  of  the 
twelve,  whom  He  had  selected  to  be  always 
with  Him,  deserted  to  the  enemy,  and  for  a 
mere  handful  of  silver  betrayed  Him. 


BEHOLDAMAN  51 

It  was  after  all  this  —  the  sorrow  of  ten 
lifetimes  —  had  been  poured  into  a  few  short 
months  of  His  young  manhood,  that  He  stood 
still,  calm-eyed,  and  confident,  before  Pilate, 
His  judge,  from  whose  lips  the  sentence  of 
death  was  in  a  few  moments  to  be  pronounced 
upon  Him.  But  before  that  sentence  was 
formed  into  words  there  burst  from  those 
coarse  lips  another  sentence  of  involuntary 
admiration.  To  the  hooting  crowd  outside 
he  showed  the  Young  Man  who  had  displayed 
a  courage  and  sublime  composure  never  before 
known  in  those  judgment  halls  and  pointing 
to  Him,  said,  "Behold  a  man!" 


IV 

''THAT  HE  SHOULD  EAT  WITH  HIM'' 

IN  the  early  part  of  His  public  work  —  even 
before  His  spectacular  day  in  the  Temple 
—  the  Young  Man  had  stopped  at  Cana 
in  Galilee  with  His  mother  and  His  disciples 
to  attend  a  wedding.  In  those  times  weddings 
lasted  several  days,  and  the  festivities  that 
attended  them  and  the  honeymoon  were 
sometimes  far  from  restrained.  They  were 
great  occasions  in  the  lives  of  the  simple 
peasant  folk:  cares  were  laid  aside,  wine 
flowed  freely,  and  the  whole  company  enjoyed 
a  jovial,  whole-hearted  good  time. 

Suddenly  in  the  midst  of  the  feast  which 
followed  the  banquet  at  Cana  word  was 
brought  to  the  dismayed  hostess  that  the  wine 
had  given  out.  To  the  good  woman,  who  a 
moment  before  had  been  looking  out  over  the 
feasters  in  wistful  happiness,  the  message  was 
a  terrible  one.     She  was  not  rich,  but  she  was 


HE     SHOULD     EAT     WITH      HIM        53 

proud  and  sensitive.  This,  her  daughter's 
wedding,  was  the  one  great  social  occasion  of 
her  hfe;  she  had  planned  for  it  and  looked 
forward  to  it  a  long  time;  it  was  her  hope 
that  her  neighbors  might  remember  it  as  the 
one  finest  and  most  perfect  wedding  that 
the  town  had  ever  known.  And  now  in  the 
very  midst  of  the  festivities,  the  wine  had 
given  out. 

With  that  quick  insight  which  enables  one 
woman  sometimes  to  read  the  mind  of  another, 
Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus,  who  was  helping 
to  serve  the  guests,  sensed  the  hostess'  em- 
barrassment and  realized  the  cause.  Ever 
since  the  death  of  her  husband  she  had  accus- 
tomed herself  to  bring  all  her  diflSculties  and 
problems  to  the  clear  judgment  and  unfailing 
resource  of  her  son:  she  leaned  over  to  Him 
now,  and  said,  "Son,  the  wine  is  gone." 

He  was  only  one  among  a  hundred  guests: 
the  trouble  belonged  no  more  to  Him  than  to 
any  one  of  the  others;  not  so  much,  indeed, 
as  to  those  who  were  relatives,  and  who  would 
share  most  in  the  embarrassment  and  criti- 
cism.    Only  a  short  while  before,  when  He 


54  A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

had  been  for  forty  days  and  nights  without 
food  in  the  wilderness,  He  had  refused  to  use 
His  miraculous  power  to  provide  food  for  His 
own  needs,  deeming  it  a  gift  too  sacred  to  be 
thus  employed.  Yet  now  as  His  keen  sym- 
pathetic sight  took  in  the  situation.  He  did  not 
hesitate  a  moment.  Calling  an  attendant 
to  Him,  He  ordered  six  large  stone  waterpots 
to  be  filled  with  water.  When  they  were 
full  He  commanded  that  some  of  the  hquid 
be  drawn  off  and  carried  to  the  master  of  the 
ceremonies.  That  dignitary,  touching  his 
lips  to  the  glass,  and  finding  new  wine  of  sur- 
passing quality,  called  the  bridegroom  to  him 
and  said,  "Every  man  setteth  on  first  the  good 
wine,  and  when  men  have  drunk  freely,  then 
that  which  is  worse;  thou  hast  kept  the  good 
wine  until  now."  And  over  across  the  room, 
a  happy  hostess,  looking  at  the  Young  Man  out 
of  eyes  that  glistened,  smiled  and  nodded  her 
heartfelt  appreciation. 

With  the  miracles  which  He  wrought  we 
are  as  little  concerned  in  this  book  as  He  would 
wish  us  to  be.  The  evidence  for  some  of 
them  at  least  is  so  well  authenticated  that 


HE     SHOULD     EAT     WITH     HIM        55 

there  can  be  no  doubt  of  His  miraculous  power. 
But  He  Himself  attached  little  importance 
to  His  so-called  wondrous  works:  always  He 
was  seeking  to  avoid  the  necessity  for  them, 
and  attempting  to  suppress  reports  of  them, 
reiterating  to  His  disciples  that  His  words 
—  not  His  works  —  were  of  real  moment. 
But  there  has  been  so  much  written  of  Him 
as  the  "man  of  sorrows"  and  His  happy, 
joyous,  social  nature  has  been  so  long  traduced, 
that  this  first  miracle  of  His,  the  only  one 
performed  by  Him  for  a  full  year,  should  not 
be  forgotten.  It  was  performed  not  to  teach 
a  lesson  nor  impress  a  crowd,  but  merely  to 
save  a  hostess  from  embarrassment.  He  who 
had  considered  His  power  too  holy  to  be  used 
in  recruiting  His  own  strength,  did  not  hesitate 
to  use  it  in  adding  to  the  success  of  a  social 
party.  Judged  by  the  award  of  His  wondrous 
works,  a  social  occasion,  the  joyous  mingling 
together  of  kindred  spirits,  was  of  equal  im- 
portance in  His  thought  with  healing  the  sick 
or  preaching  the  gospel.  He  was  just  as 
ready  to  perform  a  miracle  to  promote  the  one 
as  the  other. 


56  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

Indeed  His  hearty  laugh  rings  continuously 
throughout  the  first  happy  months  of  His 
ministry.  He  was  so  cheerful,  so  companion- 
able, so  ready  to  lay  aside  the  burdens  of  His 
work  for  a  good  time  with  His  friends,  that 
plenty  of  people  criticised  Him  for  it.  John 
— who  lived  much  closer  to  the  popular  idea 
of  a  prophet  —  had  been  a  dweller  alone, 
shutting  himself  away  from  the  world,  declin- 
ing all  social  pleasures  and  uttering  his  dire 
warnings  in  the  heart  of  the  wilderness.  His 
earnestness  and  self-sacrifice  had  made  a  deep 
impression  on  the  crowds,  and  even  the  Young 
Man  of  Galilee  Himself  had  felt  the  influence 
of  it  during  the  early  weeks  of  His  ministry. 
For  a  brief  time  —  forty  days  —  He  had 
followed  John's  example,  retiring  into  the  wil- 
derness, and  denying  Himself  food  and  social 
intercourse.  But  forty  days  was  enough; 
at  the  end  of  that  time  His  warm,  companion- 
loving  nature  had  rebelled.  He  was  convinced 
that  however  right  that  mode  of  life  might 
be  for  John,  His  own  work  must  be  done  by 
mingling  happily  with  people  in  the  every- 
day work  and  pleasures  of  their  lives. 


HE     SHOULD     EAT     WITH     HIM        57 

Thereafter  the  same  people  who  had  said 
"John  has  a  devil,"  because  "he  came  neither 
eating  nor  drinking,"  turned  their  criticisms 
against  the  Young  Man  from  Galilee.  He 
is  a  "gluttonous  man"  they  said,  "and  a 
winebibber.  He  makes  friends  of  publicans 
and  sinners,  and  eateth  with  them." 

Their  criticism  worried  not  the  Young 
Man.  \Vlien  the  disciples  of  John  came  to 
Him  to  complain  that  His  own  disciples  never 
fasted,  as  John  required  his  followers  to  do, 
He  compared  himself  to  a  bridegroom,  and 
His  disciples  to  the  guests  at  a  wedding. 
That  was  His  conception  of  hfe  —  an  experi- 
ence continuously  as  good  and  joyous  as  a 
honeymoon.  "Surely  you  don't  expect  the 
companions  of  the  bridal  chamber  to  fast 
while  the  bridegroom  is  with  them,"  He  said; 
"there  will  be  time  enough  for  fasting  when  He 
is  gone." 

Whenever  He  visited  a  city  He  became 
immediately  the  most  popular  man  in  it. 
Crowds  flocked  about  Him  to  such  an  extent 
that  He  had  diflBculty  in  getting  in  or  out  of 
the  house;   even  when  He  attempted  to  steal 


58  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

away  from  them  in  a  boat,  some  one  was 
sure  to  spread  the  news,  and  as  He  stepped 
on  shore  it  would  be  to  find  the  first  breathless 
leaders  of  the  multitude  already  awaiting  Him. 
To  have  Him  as  a  guest  at  any  sort  of  function 
was  a  social  triumph.  The  stories  of  His 
life  abound  with  expressions  hke  these:  "A 
certain  ruler  desired  Him  that  He  should  eat 
with  Him";  "They  desired  Him  greatly  to 
remain  and  He  abode  there  two  days."  Even 
those  who  feared  and  hated  Him  could  not 
resist  the  charm  of  His  presence  or  deny 
themselves  the  pleasure  of  His  company. 
After  He  had  denounced  the  Pharisees  as 
"hypocrites"  and  "children  of  the  devil," 
they  continued  to  invite  Him  to  their  houses; 
and  in  the  closing  weeks  of  His  life,  when  they 
had  already  perfected  their  plans  for  destroy- 
ing Him  as  an  enemy  of  their  system  too 
dangerous  to  be  tolerated,  a  "chief  of  the 
Pharisees  desired  Him  that  He  would  dine  at 
his  house." 

He  almost  never  missed  a  feast  at  Jerusalem, 
apparently.  We  read  of  His  making  the  long 
journey  with  His  disciples  on  foot,  again  and 


HE     SHOULD     EAT     WITH     HIM        59 

again,  to  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  or  the  Feast 
of  the  Passover.  Not  that  He  attached  par- 
ticular significance  to  the  observances  —  in- 
deed the  thing  for  which  the  Pharisees  could 
not  forgive  Him  was  His  utter  disregard  of 
and  scorn  for  their  all-important  formalities 
—  but  He  loved  to  be  in  a  crowd.  Wherever 
the  people  were  thickest,  there  He  was  certain 
to  be  found,  telling  them  His  stories,  driving 
home  His  barbed  criticisms  of  the  oppressing 
classes,  or  parrying  the  sharp  questions  of 
wise  ones  among  His  listeners  with  answers 
which  called  forth  a  roar  of  applause  and 
laughter.  Living  was  a  joyous  occupation 
with  Him;  holiness  and  health,  in  His  vocab- 
ulary, were  twin  derivatives  from  the  same 
root.  When  He  called  a  new  disciple  —  Mat- 
thew, a  tax-gatherer  —  the  disciple,  instead 
of  withdrawing  himself  from  the  world  for 
fasting  and  prayer,  prepared  a  banquet,  and 
everybody  —  the  Young  Man  and  the  dis- 
ciples and  a  jovial  group  of  publicans  and 
sinners  together  sat  down  in  celebration. 

He  had  a  list  of  friends  so  long  and  so  varied 
that  any  modern  politician  might  well  envy 


60  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

Him.  Those  to  whom  He  is  a  smugly  re- 
spectable preacher,  and  those  who  view  Him 
as  merely  a  working-class  agitator  who  gath- 
ered the  poor  to  His  standards  by  indiscrim- 
inate denunciations  of  the  rich  need  equally 
to  study  the  list.  Arranged  in  the  order  of 
position  and  prominence  —  which  is  the  way 
that  He  would  never  have  consented  to  ar- 
range it  —  it  reached  from  one  end  of  the 
social  ladder  to  the  other.  There  were  rich 
men,  in  plenty,  who  made  no  concealment  of 
their  admiration  for  Him  and  pride  in  His 
friendship.  A  Roman  centurion  in  Caper- 
naum was  one;  the  wife  of  the  steward  of 
Herod,  and  probably  the  steward  himself, 
welcomed  Him  to  their  home  whenever  He 
could  come.  Some  wealthy  man,  the  owner 
of  an  estate  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  threw 
it  open  to  Him  as  a  place  of  retirement  when 
He  was  in  Jerusalem.  Did  He  require  an 
upper  room  in  which  to  give  a  dinner  to  His 
disciples?  He  had  only  to  send  word  to  one 
of  His  well  to  do  friends  and  the  room  was  set 
aside  for  Him.  When  at  last  His  enemies 
had   done   their   worst   and   His   body  hung 


HE     SHOULD     EAT     WITH     HIM        61 

limp  and  mutilated  on  the  cross,  it  was  a 
rich  man  who  came  to  carry  Him  away  to 
the  finely-finished  tomb  prepared  for  his  own 
burial. 

From  the  plane  of  these  wealthy  companions 
the  line  of  His  friendship  cut  down  through 
every  stratum  of  society  to  the  very  bottom. 
There  were  Pharisees  and  fishermen;  rulers 
of  the  Synagogue  and  street- walkers,  shep- 
herds, merchants,  day  laborers,  and  even 
those  utterly  despised  classes,  the  publicans 
and  the  Samaritans.  What  motley  array  of 
social  outcasts  may  have  been  included  in  the 
phrase  "and  sinners"  with  which  the  respect- 
able members  of  society  were  always  careful 
to  conclude  the  list  of  His  followers,  we  can 
only  conjecture. 

And  the  children.  Sincerity  and  patience 
and  a  happy  disposition  draw  them  as  irresist- 
ibly as  the  pole  draws  the  compass.  They 
were  always  with  Him;  and  He  was  never  too 
busy  or  too  weary  to  welcome  them.  When, 
after  a  hard  day.  He  had  seated  Himself  for 
a  little  rest,  and  the  disciples  were  endeavoring 
to  send  away  the  mothers  so  eager  to  crowd 


62  A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

about  Him  with  their  httle  ones,  He  reproved 
their  effort.  "Suffer  the  httle  children  to 
come  unto  me,"  He  said,  "and  forbid  them 
not:  for  of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven." 
Some  of  the  finest  of  His  teachings  were  ut- 
tered while  He  sat  with  a  child  in  His  lap; 
they  felt  even  more  subtly  than  their  elders 
the  charm  and  cheer  of  His  presence  and 
responded  to  it  just  as  eagerly. 

How  —  from  a  study  of  this  freest,  most 
joyous  life — men  could  have  found  justifica- 
tion for  asceticism,  for  a  withdrawal  from  the 
world  and  a  bitter  scorn  of  its  pleasures; 
how  they  could  have  dared  to  bury  His 
ringing  laughter  under  the  cold  walls  of  a 
monastery,  is  one  of  the  great,  tragic  mys- 
teries of  all  time.  His  very  speech  was  teem- 
ing with  the  keenness  of  His  joy  in  life.  He 
drew  no  lessons  from  the  Synagogue,  nor 
pointed  morals  from  the  dull  formalism  of 
religious  practise.  His  stories  were  of  a  sower 
who  went  forth  to  sow,  singing  his  song  as 
he  went;  of  a  man  who  made  a  banquet 
and  invited  a  great  company  of  guests.  He 
Himself,  in  His  discourses,  was  the  "bread  of 


HE     SHOULD     EAT     WITH     HIM        63 

life"  which  a  man  might  eat  and  never  again 
be  hungry. 

Four  disciples  set  down  their  impression  of 
His  life  and  teachings ;  and  every  page  of  their 
writings  is  a  testimony  that  in  social  grace, 
in  all  that  makes  a  genial  companion  and  a 
lovable  man  among  men,  their  Master  stood 
preeminent  among  all  the  men  of  the  world. 
But  we  are  not  left  to  form  our  judgment  from 
their  biased  testimonies.  In  the  troubled 
last  days  of  His  ministry  the  chief  priests  and 
scribes  sent  out  officers  and  men  to  arrest 
Him.  These  mingled  with  the  crowd  of  His 
hearers  for  a  while,  felt  the  charm  of  His 
presence,  the  rich  warmth  of  His  voice,  the 
wonderful  appeal  of  His  words,  and  returned 
shamefaced  to  their  employers. 

"Why  didn't  you  bring  Him?"  the  chief 
priests  and  the  Pharisees  demanded  angrily. 

And  the  oflScers  had  no  real  excuse  to  pre- 
sent. "You  should  hear  Him  yourself,"  was 
all  they  could  say,  "and  you'd  understand. 
Never  man  so  spake." 


V 

''AND  BESOUGHT  HIM'* 

IT  is  something  of  an  axiom  in  the  business 
world  that  the  bigger  a  man  is  the  more 
easily  is  he  accessible.  The  man  of  small 
affairs  and  little  responsibihties  is  most  swelled 
by  the  sense  of  his  own  importance;  once 
elude  the  vigilant  swarm  of  these  little  ones 
who  occupy  space  in  outer  offices,  and  you  find 
the  chief  executive,  almost  always,  a  man 
affable,  courteous,  and  considerate  of  sugges- 
tions. 

Measured  by  this  standard  of  greatness  the 
reformers  of  the  world  have  not  always  ap- 
peared to  special  advantage.  The  mass  of 
humanity,  with  whose  salvation  they  have 
charged  themselves,  has  weighed  too  heavily 
upon  their  time  and  conscience  to  allow  any 
attention  to  the  individual.  When  they  have 
had  a  thought  they  have  demanded  an  audi- 
ence commensurate  with  it.     To  cast  their 


AND     BESOUGHT     HIM  65 

pearls  before  a  single  listener,  when  but  one 
lifetime  is  given  them  in  which  to  save  the 
world,  has  generally  seemed  to  them  an  in- 
excusable waste  of  their  substance.  If  there 
are  reporters  present  they  will  talk;  otherwise 
they  are  too  busy. 

Away  from  this  worried,  bustling  crowd 
of  those  who  have  sought  to  carry  out  some 
particular  bit  of  His  program  without  any 
deference  whatever  to  His  method,  one  turns 
with  relief  to  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  Him- 
self —  the  one  reformer  in  history  who  was 
never  hurried,  never  oppressed  with  a  sense 
of  His  own  importance,  never  too  busy  to 
talk  to  anybody  who  really  wanted  to  see 
Him.  The  number  and  variety  of  His  friends, 
the  magic  compulsion  of  His  personality, 
are  an  enigma  unless  we  have  learned  with 
what  bands  of  personal  attention  and  cour- 
teous consideration  He  bound  those  friends  to 
Him.  The  man  who  wanted  to  see  Him  was 
always  the  man  whom  He  wanted  to  see. 
Some  of  His  richest  thoughts  were  uttered 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  before  a  vast 
audience;    but  others,  equally  precious,  were 


66  A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

poured  out  into  the  ears  of  single  listeners, 
sometimes  of  the  meanest  intelligence.  So 
great  was  His  respect  for  the  miracle  of  human 
personality,  so  sacred  was  every  atom  of 
human  life  to  Him,  that  no  one  who  "besought 
Him  to  come  down"  ever  sought  in  vain. 

He  was  going  back  from  Jerusalem  after 
His  first  great  day  of  triumph,  a  day  in  itself 
sufficient  to  have  destroyed  the  sense  of  pro- 
portion and  balance  of  most  men,  and,  coming 
to  Jacob's  Well,  He  sat  down.  His  disciples 
had  dropped  behind  at  one  of  the  villages  to 
purchase  food.  He  was  alone  therefore  when 
a  Samaritan  woman  came  out  of  the  neigh- 
boring city  to  draw  water.  Even  to  notice 
a  woman  on  the  street  was  a  serious  infrac- 
tion of  the  code  of  the  Pharisees :  those  right- 
eous gentlemen  were  accustomed  to  turn  their 
faces  to  the  wall  when  a  woman  passed.  To 
accost  a  Samaritan,  man  or  woman,  was  to 
be  accursed.  The  woman  was  well  enough 
aware  of  the  Jewish  prejudice  and  prepared 
to  meet  it  with  a  prejudice  equally  proud  and 
scornful.  To  her  utter  astonishment  the 
Young  Man  spoke  to  her. 


AND     BESOUGHT     HIM  67 

They  talked  for  perhaps  half  an  hour. 
The  disciples,  returning  with  food,  could  not 
conceal  their  dismay  at  finding  Him  so 
engaged,  and  at  His  announcement  that  He 
had  accepted  the  invitation  of  the  friends  of 
the  woman,  who  were  residents  in  the  city, 
to  remain  with  them  two  days.  Important 
business  waited  in  Galilee;  and  His  followers 
were  eager  to  be  back  among  their  friends 
with  reports  of  the  great  success  in  Jerusalem. 
That  He  should  allow  His  simple  fondness 
for  folks  to  turn  Him  aside  into  a  foreign 
and  outcast  city  at  such  a  time,  when  the 
report  of  it  was  certain  to  be  circulated  to 
the  prejudice  of  His  work,  was  to  them  in- 
explicable. 

They  would  have  been  even  more  non- 
plussed had  they  known  what  had  passed 
between  the  woman  and  the  Young  Man 
during  their  talk  together.  For  to  that  single 
ignorant  listener,  whose  mind  seemed  utterly 
incapable  of  grasping  the  most  fundamental 
precepts.  He  had  stated  one  of  the  sublimest 
truths  of  His  ministry.  *'Your  people  say 
that  God  ought   to   be    worshiped   in    this 


68  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

mountain,"  He  had  told  her,  "and  the  Jews 
say  that  Jerusalem  is  the  place  divinely  or- 
dained for  worship.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact 
it  doesn't  make  any  difference.  God  is  spirit 
and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship  Him 
in  spirit  and  in  truth." 

In  the  light  of  that  great  utterance  men  have 
reconstructed  their  whole  idea  of  God  and 
religion  and  worship.  Any  other  reformer 
would  have  wanted  to  speak  it  to  an  audience 
of  a  thousand,  or  to  have  written  it  in  a  book, 
lest  it  should  be  forgotten  and  lost  to  the  world. 
The  idea  never  occurred  to  the  Young  Man  of 
Galilee.  Here  was  an  audience  of  one,  a 
child  of  God  eternally  precious;  He  gave  her 
the  best  that  He  had  in  response  to  her  par- 
ticular need,  bestowing  one  of  the  richest  gems 
of  His  whole  teaching  upon  her,  a  Samaritan 
and  a  woman. 

To  be  sure  He  allowed  Himself  regular 
periods  of  solitude,  when,  alone  with  His  God, 
He  might  recruit  His  strength  and  prepare 
Himself  for  the  new  demands  that  would  be 
made  upon  Him.  But  during  practically  all 
the   days   of   His   ministry   He   was   forever 


AND     BESOUGHT     HIM  69 

available  to  any  man,  woman,  or  child  who 
needed  help.  He  might  be  in  the  city,  or 
traveling  from  village  to  village  or  resting  at 
the  home  of  a  friend  —  it  made  no  difference. 
He  could  be  reached,  and  was  reached  by  those 
who  sought  Him,  sometimes  in  moments  when 
His  whole  spirit  cried  out  for  rest. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  third  period  of  his 
ministry,  when  the  clouds  were  thickening 
about  Him,  He  had  left  the  beloved  shores  of 
the  Sea  of  Galilee  for  the  only  journey  that  He 
ever  made  into  the  ancient  cities  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon.  The  best  friend  whom  He  had  on 
earth.  His  cousin,  John  the  Baptist,  had  been 
slain  by  the  hand  of  Herod,  and  the  blow  had 
caused  Him  infinite  sorrow.  Though  His 
faith  was  undimmed.  His  hearty  laugh  rang 
out  less  freely  in  the  months  that  succeeded; 
the  smile,  ever  ready  on  His  lips  and  always 
tender,  became  often  very  wistful.  The  com- 
mon people  no  longer  "heard  Him  gladly." 
He  was  sensible  that  a  period  of  crisis  had  been 
reached  in  His  public  work,  and  there  were 
moments  when  the  visions  of  His  own  cross 
loomed  suddenly  and  vividly  before  Him. 


70  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

The  opposition,  which  had  thus  far  been 
hidden  beneath  the  great  wave  of  His  popu- 
larity, rose  to  the  surface,  emboldened  by 
John's  defeat.  He  felt  it  in  the  cities  where 
He  had  done  His  best  work  and  met  His 
largest  successes.  Galilee  grew  cold;  Caper- 
naum, "His  own  city"  which  He  had  loved 
most,  began  to  doubt  Him ;  and  Bethsaida  and 
Chorazin,  cities  that  had  seen  the  mightiest 
of  His  miracles,  no  longer  responded  to  His 
call.  Brooding  over  all  these  things,  and 
wanting  more  than  anything  else  to  be  alone 
that  He  might  think  and  plan  and  pray.  He 
turned  aside  into  Tyre,  "and  entered  into  a 
house  and  would  have  no  man  know  it." 

"But  He  could  not  be  hid."  Straightway 
a  woman  He  had  never  seen,  a  foreigner  who 
had  not  the  slightest  claim  upon  Him,  came 
and  fell  down  at  His  feet  to  pour  out  the  bitter 
story  of  her  daughter's  illness.  The  child 
had  been  sick  from  infancy,  and  the  poor 
woman,  having  tried  without  result  all  the 
crude  remedies  which  the  science  of  the  age 
provided,  crowded  herself  in  upon  Him  and 
demanded  help.     She  received  it:  the  daughter 


AND     BESOUGHT     HIM  71 

was  healed.  He  on  whose  heart  was  then  cast 
the  burden  and  care  of  the  whole  world  was 
not  too  preoccupied  nor  too  weary  to  give 
Himself  to  a  single  soul  in  distress. 

Some  months  later,  when  He  was  nearing 
Jerusalem  for  the  last  time,  knowing  what  was 
before  Him,  a  blind  man,  named  Bartimseus, 
a  beggar,  saw  Him  and  called  His  name. 
"Jesus,"  he  called,  *'oh,  Jesus,  thou  son  of 
David,  have  mercy  on  me." 

The  disciples  were  angry.  They  had  never 
seen  their  Lord  so  preoccupied.  Though  they 
could  only  vaguely  conjecture  what  was 
passing  in  His  mind,  they  knew  by  the  way 
that  He  walked  ahead  of  them,  alone,  and  by 
the  silence  which  had  taken  the  place  of  His 
genial  conversation,  that  He  was  sorely 
troubled.  They  hurried  over  to  the  side  of 
the  beggar  man  and  rebuked  him  sharply 
for  his  impudence,  bidding  him  be  still  and 
leave  the  Great  Man  to  His  thoughts.  But 
the  mind  which  for  three  years  had  made  itself 
sensitive  to  every  slightest  whisper  of  need 
heard  the  call  even  through  its  cloud  of  worry 
and  preoccupation.    The  Young  Man  stopped 


72  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

quietly  in  the  road,  and  turning,  said,  "Call 
ye  him." 

Tn  an  instant  the  beggar  was  before  Him, 
having  dropped  his  garment  in  his  eagerness. 
The  Young  Man  looked  down  at  him  and  in 
that  moment  the  dirty,  unkempt,  cringing 
figure  became  more  important  to  Him  than  all 
the  burden  of  His  care  for  the  world. 

"What  is  it,"  He  asked,  "that  you  want  Me 
to  do  for  you?" 

The  bhnd  man  replied,  "Rabboni,  that  I 
should  receive  my  sight." 

Over  the  Young  Man's  face  spread  the  smile 
which  had  carried  healing  with  it  wherever 
it  had  shone,  and  He  said,  "Go  thy  way: 
thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole." 

The  inevitable  crowd  had  gathered.  It 
was  known  which  way  He  was  to  pass,  and  the 
streets  were  lined  with  people  on  every  side. 
One  little  man,  a  publican  who  had  grown 
rich  in  the  collection  of  taxes  in  Jericho, 
knowing  that  he  could  not  see  over  the  heads 
of  the  crowd,  had  run  ahead  and  climbed  up 
into  a  tree.  The  most  that  he  had  hoped  was 
that  he  might  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  wonder- 


AND     BESOUGHT     HIM  73 

ful  Young  Man  in  the  street;  he  had  known 
too  well  his  own  unpopularity  and  the  preju- 
dice of  the  Jews  against  his  class  to  expect 
anything  more  than  that.  He  saw  the  crowd 
approaching,  a  group  of  boys  racing  before, 
the  people  pushing  into  the  street  from  all 
sides,  and  finally  the  Young  Man  Himself. 
Nearer  He  came,  and  nearer;  suddenly  to 
the  astonishment  of  the  little  man  in  the  tree 
He  stopped  almost  beneath  its  branches, 
and  calling  him  by  name  said: 

^'Zacchaeus,  come  down;  to-day  I  must 
abide  at  thy  house." 

Zacchseus  could  hardly  believe  his  ears; 
that  he  of  all  the  men  in  the  city  should  be  so 
honored  before  the  whole  multitude  was  al- 
most incredible.  Trembling  with  eagerness, 
he  came  down  before  the  crowd,  which  for 
once  was  too  dumbfounded  to  display  its 
antagonism  toward  him,  and  with  joy  such  as 
he  had  never  before  known  led  the  Young 
Man  away  to  be  his  guest. 

It  had  been  years  since  anyone  had  even 
spoken  kindly  to  Zacchseus,  to  say  nothing  of 
accepting  his  hospitality.     In  the  warm  glow 


74  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

of  the  Young  Man's  companionship  all  that 
was  best  in  his  tortured,  sympathy-starved 
nature  asserted  itself.  Leaning  over  to  his 
guest,  he  said, 

"Behold,  Lord,  I  am  going  to  give  half  of 
my  goods  to  the  poor;  and  if  I  have  wrongfully 
extorted  of  any  man  I  will  restore  fourfold." 

And  the  Young  Man  who  in  a  few  days  was 
to  give  not  merely  His  goods  but  His  hfe  for 
the  poor,  smiled  and  answered, 

"To-day  is  salvation  come  to  this  house." 

After  that  He  "went  on  before  them,  going 
up  to  Jerusalem,"  completing  the  hardest, 
most  bitter  journey  which  any  young  man 
has  ever  had  to  make.  But  the  people  who 
met  Him  by  the  way  were  not  aware  that  the 
journey  was  bitter:  the  smile  which  greeted 
them  when  they  stopped  Him  gave  no  evi- 
dence of  the  strife  that  was  going  on  within. 
For  each  one  who  hailed  Him  received  the 
very  choicest  care  that  the  Young  Man  had 
to  give;  in  the  moment  of  their  conversation 
together,  the  petty  need  of  each  chance  ac- 
quaintance was  of  more  importance  than  the 
awful  problem  of  His  own  life  and  death. 


VI 

''GENERATION  OF  VIPERS" 

IT  was  a  weary  world  on  which  Jesus  had 
looked  out  over  the  sides  of  His  manger- 
cradle;  just  how  weary  He  came  to  realize 
better  during  the  thirty  years  of  His  life  as 
the  member  of  an  impoverished  peasant 
family.  The  cloud  of  Rome's  greed  hung  over 
the  whole  earth,  obscuring  the  sun  of  ambition 
and  hope;  the  East,  including  Galilee,  had 
for  generations  been  the  treasure-chest  of 
every  Roman  adventurer  whose  fortunes 
needed  recouping.  One  army  after  another 
overran  its  fertile  fields  and  pillaged  its 
treasuries,  until  hope  had  been  blurred  out 
of  all  life,  and  self-respect  was  dead. 

Of  what  use  was  it  to  be  ambitious?  The 
larger  the  prosperity  the  more  sure  to  attract 
the  covetous  glance  of  the  despoiler.  Why 
seek  for  an  increased  crop  or  a  growing  herd.'' 
The  greater  the  increase  the  heavier  the  taxes. 


76  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

Added  to  the  extortions  of  the  priests  and  the 
insatiable  demands  of  the  Herods  came  the 
decree  of  Caesar  that  "all  the  world  should 
be  taxed."  More  money  must  be  forthcoming 
from  the  groaning  proletaire  to  provide  the 
Roman  holiday,  or  rather  the  one  hundred 
holidays,  the  third  of  every  year,  which  Rome 
had  hallowed  to  dissipation.  Like  a  great 
beast  she  lay  along  the  banks  of  the  Tiber, 
sucking  the  blood  of  the  whole  world;  and 
from  its  farthest  corners  came  a  sullen  roar 
of  hatred,  as  men  beheld  their  slender  flocks 
cut  in  two,  their  household  goods  pillaged, 
their  sons  carried  off  to  be  pitted  against  the 
sons  of  their  neighbors  in  the  arena,  their 
daughters  snatched  away  to  be  made  the  play- 
things of  some  pleasure-sated  Roman  lord. 

The  world  was  not  merely  economically 
exhausted;  it  was  spiritually  dead.  In  its 
first  days  Rome  had  professed  a  religion, 
but  long  since  that  religion  had  fallen  into 
decay  as  a  useless  encumbrance  to  a  "prac- 
tical'* people.  To  be  sure,  its  forms  were 
still  in  evidence,  but  they  were  forms  alone. 
The  priests  in  Rome  sold  their  auguries  to  the 


GENERATION     OF     VIPERS         77 

highest  bidder,  emperors  disported  themselves 
with  the  Vestal  Virgins,  and  at  the  contests 
in  the  arena,  where  sometimes  hundreds  of 
gladiators  met  death  in  a  single  day,  these 
Virgins  occupied  a  box  especially  set  apart 
for  them.  Though  no  temple  was  erected  to 
Money  in  the  great  city,  Money  none  the  less, 
as  Tacitus  has  pointed  out,  was  the  only  real 
god.  Everything  was  subordinated  to  a  rapa- 
cious greed  for  wealth  which  left  no  place  for 
any  other  motive.  The  world  was  covered 
with  an  everlasting  twilight  in  which  the  men 
and  women  moved  about  wearily,  too  trod 
upon  to  think;   too  soul-sick  to  plan. 

Against  all  this  bitterness  of  oppression  the 
hot  young  blood  of  Jesus  rose  rebelliously. 
To  Him  the  one  sacred  and  worth-while 
thing  in  the  world  was  personality;  every 
single  soul,  every  man  and  woman,  was  a 
thing  mystical,  wonderfully  capable  of  divine 
possibilities.  That  the  world  should  have 
been  handed  over  bodily  to  a  little  group  of 
degenerates  on  the  Tiber,  who  had  coined 
men's  souls  into  dollars  and  ground  the 
precious  stuff  of  manhood  and  womanhood 


78  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

into  the  dust  and  ashes  of  palaces,  and  villas, 
and  arenas,  and  temples,  and  mere  wealth  — 
all  this  was  to  Him  the  vilest  sacrilege.  He 
needed  not  that  any  man  should  tell  Him  the 
conditions:  He  Himself  had  grown  up  in  a 
peasant  home  and  felt  the  pinch  of  poverty. 
When  His  father  and  mother  had  taken  Him 
up  to  the  Temple  at  the  age  of  twelve  for 
dedication,  they  had  been  compelled,  by  their 
want,  to  substitute  two  pigeons  for  the  usual 
sacrifice  of  a  young  kid.  He  had  never  for- 
gotten that,  nor  the  bitter  shame  of  His 
parents  because  of  their  necessity.  The  begin- 
nings of  His  own  public  ministry  had  been 
delayed  until  after  His  thirtieth  year  —  a 
long  time  in  a  country  where  men  mature  in 
their  teens  —  for  the  demands  of  a  family  of 
growing  children  had  kept  Him  at  home  until 
they  were  able  to  look  after  themselves.  It 
may  be,  indeed,  that  His  surrender  of  the 
privileges  of  marriage  was  a  sacrifice  laid 
upon  Him  by  the  burdens  which  His  father's 
death  had  entailed.  For  there  are  unmarried 
men.  He  once  said,  who  were  born  incapable 
of  marriage:    and  there  are  others  who  have 


GENERATION     OF     VIPERS         79 

voluntarily  foregone  the  privileges  of  marriage 
for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven's  sake.  Was  He 
speaking  out  of  His  own  experience  when 
He  said  it?  Did  there  lie  back  in  Nazareth 
the  memory  of  some  defeated  romance  of 
His  earlier  life,  crushed  to  death,  like  too 
many  other  joys,  by  the  hand  of  poverty 
made  ruthless  by  extortion?  We  can  only 
conjecture. 

He  had  Himself  seen  the  woman,  of  whom 
He  told,  who,  having  gathered  together  a 
petty  sum  of  ten  pieces  of  silver,  lost  one  and 
swept  the  house  feverishly  from  top  to  bottom 
until  she  found  it;  He  had  seen  the  man  with 
the  slender  flock  of  a  hundred  sheep,  who 
trudged  all  night  long  through  briers  and  brush 
to  recover  the  single  wanderer.  The  poor 
householder  stirred  out  of  bed  by  an  unex- 
pected guest  and  compelled  to  beg  three  loaves 
of  bread  from  his  neighbor  was  a  character 
easily  recognized  by  His  listeners,  in  whose 
experience  empty  cupboards  were  the  rule 
rather  than  the  exception.  The  laborers  in 
His  parable,  who,  when  asked  "Why  stand  ye 
here  all  the  day  idle?"  had  answered,  *'Be- 


80  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

cause  no  man  hireth  us,"  and  who  eagerly 
accepted  the  offer  of  work  at  a  penny  a  day, 
were  represented  in  large  numbers  in  the 
crowds  that  followed  Him.  They  were  not 
in  slavery  —  as  nearly  one  half  the  population 
of  the  civilized  world  was  at  the  time  —  but 
they  might  nearly  as  well  have  been.  In 
the  attitude  of  the  well  to  do  members  of 
their  own  race,  the  Pharisee  and  the  Scribe  and 
the  lawyer,  there  was  the  same  disdain  and 
contempt  which  well-bred  Romans  felt  for 
their  bondsmen.  *'Out  of  Galilee,"  said  the 
Pharisees  sneeringly,  "ariseth  no  prophet." 
Samaria  was  a  "city  of  fools."  "This  mul- 
titude that  knoweth  not  the  law"  —  all  the 
great  mass  of  artisans,  small  farmers,  day 
laborers,  publicans,  and  sinners,  the  multitude 
to  whom  Jesus  belonged  and  whose  prophet 
He  was  —  "this  multitude  is  accursed." 

Insurgency  in  our  day  has  become  the  easy 
and  popular  thing.  To  revolt  is  to  have  one's 
picture  published  in  the  magazines;  insur- 
rection is  punished  with  publicity.  Nobody 
dies  for  his  faith  or  perishes  leading  a  hopeless 
crusade  for  the  recovery  of  his  shrines;  burn- 


GENERATION     OF     VIPERS         81 

ings  at  the  stake  have  long  since  passed  out  of 
fashion,  and  even  were  they  to  occur,  their 
terrors  would  be  mitigated,  at  least,  by  the 
consoling  presence  of  the  moving-picture 
camera.  But  in  the  days  of  Tiberius  and 
Herod,  he  who  lifted  his  voice  against  the 
greed  and  oppression  of  the  System,  did  so 
at  the  imminent  risk  of  his  life.  The  Young 
Man  of  Galilee  knew  precisely  what  it  meant 
to  be  an  insurgent,  if  not  at  the  very  beginning 
of  His  ministry,  at  least  before  He  had  pro- 
gressed very  far.  He  had  seen  the  fate  of 
some  insurgents  with  His  own  eyes.  In 
His  first  impressionable  years  a  certain  Judas, 
a  patriot  Galilean  made  mad  by  the  tyrannies 
laid  upon  his  people,  had  risen  in  revolt, 
and  several  thousand  had  flocked  to  his 
banner.  The  memory  of  it  must  have  been 
with  Jesus  like  a  restless  dream  throughout 
the  days  of  His  own  protest.  For  the  Romans 
had  made  short  work  of  Judas.  Two  legions 
had  stamped  down  upon  Galilee.  For  weeks 
the  sky  was  black  with  the  smoke  of  burning 
villages;  and  every  roadside  was  made  hor- 
rible  with   the   writhing   forms   of   the   men 


82  A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

nailed  on  crosses  in  warning  to  the  rest  of 
their  kind. 

It  needed  no  one  to  tell  the  Young  Man  of 
Galilee  the  cost  of  revolt.  He  knew  both  the 
cost  and  the  penalty.  While  greed  and  extor- 
tion were  crushing  out  the  souls  of  men, 
He  who  had  come  to  make  them  conscious 
of  their  divinity  could  not  be  silent.  "Think 
not,"  He  said  to  His  disciples,  "that  I  am  come 
to  bring  peace  into  the  world.  I  am  not  come 
to  bring  peace  but  a  sword."  And  to  those 
who  sought  to  cast  their  lot  with  Him  He 
made  no  concealment  of  the  danger.  "If 
any  man  would  come  after  me,  he  must  be 
prepared  to  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me." 
He  and  His  disciples  went  forth  as  "sheep 
among  wolves,"  knowing  full  well  the  danger 
and  inevitable  consequence.    Yet  they  went. 

How  He  struck  His  first  blow  at  the  very 
heart  of  the  wicked  System  we  have  already 
seen  in  the  opening  chapter.  The  sin  of 
the  Temple  rulers  consisted  not  merely  in  the 
extortion  of  more  than  $3,500,000  from  the 
poor  a  year  —  there  issued  from  the  Temple 
also  that  hateful  spirit  which  regarded  all  the 


GENERATION     OF     VIPERS         83 

race  outside  of  the  narrow  confines  of  Pharisa- 
ism as  "accursed,"  the  spirit  against  which 
the  resentment  of  Jesus  burned  most  hotly. 
One  can  imagine  how  His  first  messages  must 
have  fallen  hke  oil  on  the  smoldering  spirits 
of  the  oppressed  classes.  He  told  them  that 
He  had  come  to  preach  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  and  that  they  —  sinners,  social  out- 
casts, harlots,  pubhcans,  out  of  whom  all 
vestige  of  hope  and  self-respect  had  been 
crushed  —  were  to  enter  into  that  Kingdom 
in  advance  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  He 
told  them  that  God  was  their  relative,  their 
Father,  and  that  each  one  of  them  was  equal 
in  His  sight  with  the  greatest  and  most  power- 
ful of  the  world.  To  the  poor  He  said,  "  Yours 
is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven":  to  the  meek  and 
downtrodden  He  promised  that  they  should 
"inherit  the  earth."  On  the  rich  and  power- 
ful, who  had  grown  great  through  oppression. 
He  poured  out  warnings  of  destruction. 

"Woe  unto  you  that  are  rich,"  He  said, 
"for  ye  have  received  your  consolation." 

"Woe  unto  you,  ye  that  are  full  now:  for 
ye  shall  hunger." 


84  A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

"Woe  unto  you,  ye  that  laugh  now:  for 
ye  shall  mourn  and  weep." 

He  sowed  that  leaven  of  democracy  which 
in  every  age  since  has  proved  the  most  pow- 
erful inspirer  of  self-respect  and  the  most  active 
fomenter  of  revolt.  "You  are  God's  special 
care,"  He  told  them,  "not  a  hair  of  your 
heads  can  be  touched  without  His  knowle^dge. 
He  has  commissioned  Me  to  preach  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  among  you.  I  am  His  son. 
You  are  His  sons  and  daughters;  believe  in 
Me  and  you  shall  see  Him.  I  am  come  to 
you  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captive: 
to  declare  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 

It  was  terrible  language,  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  those  who  lived  by  oppression, 
and  from  whose  minds  there  was  never 
absent  the  haunting  fear  of  a  peasant  revolt. 
Its  syllables  echoed  from  Galilee  to  Judea, 
from  the  Temple  to  the  Palace  of  Herod, 
and  inside  the  Palace,  where  the  servile  tyrant 
heard  and  quaked  at  their  sound.  Thirty 
years  before,  his  father  had  learned  from 
Galilee  disquieting  news  of  the  birth  of  a 
child  who  was  hailed  by  the  populace  as  a 


GENERATION     OF     VIPERS         85 

promised  deliverer.  "When  Herod  the  King 
heard  it  he  was  troubled,  and  all  Jerusalem 
with  him."  The  father  had  been  a  man  of 
magnificent  nerve,  capable  of  dealing  vigor- 
ously with  rebels  of  any  sort;  the  son  was  a 
weakling,  forever  trembling  between  dread 
of  the  Romans  on  one  hand  and  of  the  people, 
who  hated  him,  on  the  other — a  creature  of 
intrigue  and  stealth.  His  very  existence  was 
dependent  upon  his  success  in  keeping  the 
soul  of  the  nation  dead:  when  therefore  he 
heard  that  a  strange  young  man  was  preaching 
in  the  North  country,  denouncing  him,  as 
John  the  Baptist  had  done,  using  the  very 
phrase  of  John — "generation  of  vipers" — 
in  describing  those  who  were  the  bulwarks  of 
his  power,  the  report  shook  his  petty  being  to 
its  foundations.  "It  is  John  the  Baptist," 
he  moaned,  "whom  I  beheaded."  And  he 
immediately  took  counsel  against  Jesus  how 
he  could  kill  Him. 

Jesus  knew  it.  He  was  aware  that  He  could 
not  hope  to  kindle  a  new  spirit  of  hope  and 
faith  in  the  people  without  engendering  revolt 
against  the  unrighteous  rule  of  Herod,  and  so 


86  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

inviting  His  own  destruction.  For  a  time  He 
attempted  to  discourage  any  uprising;  He 
disclaimed  all  desire  for  a  temporal  Messiah- 
ship.  To  those  zealous  partisans  who  would 
have  made  Him  king  He  answered  flatly  that 
they  could  not  look  to  Him  to  follow  in  the 
footsteps  of  Judas  and  lead  a  futile  uprising. 
But  the  wonderful  seed  of  His  democracy  had 
been  too  well  sown.  Between  Herod  and 
Himself,  with  His  gospel  of  divine  sonship, 
there  could  be  no  compromise.  He  sought 
none.  "In  that  very  hour  there  came  certain 
Pharisees  saying  to  Him,  '  Get  Thee  out  and 
go  hence  for  Herod  would  fain  kill  Thee!'" 

Rising  to  the  full  height  of  His  splendid 
stature  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  flung  back 
His  answer  in  a  voice  loud  enough  so  that  all 
the  crowd  might  hear  it,  beginning  with  the 
words,  "Go  tell  that  fox — " 

"That  fox."  The  phrase,  so  aptly  descrip- 
tive of  Herod's  cringing  nature  swept  through 
Galilee  and  Judea  and  all  the  provinces.  It 
was  a  bit  of  insurgent  rhetoric  which  for  the 
courage  involved  in  it  is  hardly  equalled  in 
history. 


GENERATION     OF     VIPERS         87 

But  Herod  was  not  the  only  oppressor 
against  whom  His  wrath  was  kindled.  The 
priests,  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  —  all  that 
self-righteous,  disdainful  aristocracy  whose 
activities  centered  at  the  Temple — were  pos- 
sessed of  great  power.  Much  of  the  distress 
which  the  people  suffered  was  caused  by  their 
exactions.  From  the  day  when  He  had 
struck  at  them  in  their  tenderest  spot  —  the 
monopolies  and  vested  interests  which  yielded 
their  income  —  they  did  not  cease  to  pursue 
Him.  With  an  implacable  hatred  they  dogged 
His  footsteps  with  informers,  sought  to  entrap 
Him  by  sharp  questions,  and  plotted  *'how 
they  might  take  Him."  He  accepted  their 
enmity  as  a  justifiable  feature  of  His  ministry, 
and  met  their  assaults  with  courage  that 
never  wavered. 

Did  they  invite  Him  to  their  tables,  and  seek 
there  to  entrap  Him  into  some  damaging 
statement  which  might  be  used  against  Him? 
He  turned  upon  them,  in  their  own  houses, 
with  the  most  outspoken  denunciation: 

*'Woe  unto  you.  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
hypocrites;   because  ye  shut  the  Kingdom  of 


88  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

Heaven  against  men;  for  ye  enter  not  in 
yourselves,  neither  suffer  them  that  are  enter- 
ing in  to  enter. 

"Woe  unto  you  la^vye^s,  for  ye  load  men 
with  burdens  grievous  to  be  borne,  and  your- 
selves touch  not  the  burdens  with  one  of  your 
fingers." 

And  in  the  hearing  of  all  the  people  He  said : 
"Beware  of  the  Scribes  which  desire  to  walk 
in  long  robes  and  love  salutations  in  the 
marketplaces,  and  chief  seats  at  the  syna- 
gogues and  chief  places  at  the  feasts;  which 
devour  widows'  houses  and  for  a  pretence 
make  long  prayers:  these  shall  receive  the 
greater   condemnation." 

The  Scribes,  the  Pharisees,  the  lawyers, 
and  Herod  —  they  were  all  "loading  the 
people  with  burdens  grievous  to  be  borne"; 
they  were  all  "devouring  widows'  houses"; 
and  He  poured  out  His  denunciation  upon 
them  in  equal  measure.  He  had  not  come  to 
preach  economic  deliverance  nor  to  captain  a 
social  revolution,  but  He  was  a  Son  of  Man 
—  not  of  any  special  man,  but  just  the  com- 
mon, poor,  eternally-oppressed  man,  disdained 


GENERATION     OF     VIPERS         89 

by  the  oligarchy  —  and  in  behalf  of  His  own 
class  and  of  the  poor  and  despoiled  everywhere 
He  lifted  up  His  voice  against  the  powerful 
oppressing  element  in  the  nation.  Even  when 
it  meant,  as  He  knew,  that  He  must  lay  down 
His  life  as  the  price  of  His  words. 

There  came  a  time  when  the  people  deserted 
Him,  impatient  because  He  would  not  throw 
the  spiritual  message  of  His  ministry  to  the 
winds  and  lead  them  in  arms  against  their 
material  enemies;  when  many  of  His  disciples 
walked  with  Him  no  more,  and  it  grew  safe 
for  His  persecutors  to  pursue  in  the  opei^  the 
attacks  which  they  had  hitherto  urged  against 
Him  privately.  He  sensed  more  quickly  than 
anyone  else  the  change  in  the  situation,  and 
knew  its  portent  for  Him.  There  was  plenty 
of  time  for  Him  to  save  Himself;  indeed,  on 
any  night  during  His  final  week  He  might 
have  slipped  off  from  His  retreat  in  the  Mount 
of  Olives  to  retirement  in  safety.  But  instead 
He  walked  boldly  among  them  up  to  the  very 
end.  His  insurgent  spirit  unbroken  by  their 
threats  or  the  knowledge  that  they  would 
ultimately  prevail  against  Him.     All  the  last 


90  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

week  He  blocked  their  streets  with  His  crowd, 
which  brushed  boisterously  against  them; 
and  the  harshest  words  which  He  spoke  were 
said  at  a  meal  in  one  of  their  own  houses. 

When  they  led  Him  finally  before  Pilate  it 
was  to  accuse  Him  with  having  stirred  up  the 
crowd  against  Rome  and  "forbidden  men  to 
render  tribute  to  Caesar,"  a  thing  which  He 
had  never  done.  It  was  in  their  own  private 
star-chamber  session  of  the  Sanhedrin  that 
the  real  rankling  motive  for  their  hatred  came 
out.  There  they  shook  their  fists  at  Him  in 
thei/"  fury  and  said,  "We  heard  you  say  'I 
will  destroy  this  Temple  that  is  made  with 
hands  and  in  three  days  I  will  build  another 
that  is  made  without  hands.'" 

The  place  where  they  had  heard  Him  say 
it  was  in  the  court  of  the  Temple  itself,  when 
He  had  driven  the  thieving  crowd  of  their 
underlings  before  Him.  Not  because  He  had 
denounced  them  but  because  He  had  struck 
at  their  source  of  revenue  were  they  bent 
on  His  destruction;  not  because  they  were 
priests  but  because  they  were  robbers. 


GENERATION     OF     VIPERS         91 

In  an  age  when  the  wages  of  protest  were 
death,  He  raised  His  voice  gladly  and  without 
fear,  giving  utterance  to  those  great  truths 
which  have  been  the  inspiration  of  every 
succeeding  crusade  for  the  rights  of  men.  If 
the  words  seem  sometimes  harsh  and  jarring, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  abuses  against 
which  He  hurled  them  were  deep-rooted  and 
cruel,  and  the  consciences  that  He  hoped  to 
stir  had  been  a  long  time  dead  in  indifference. 
No  gentle  rebuke  could  have  availed  anything. 

In  another  chapter  we  shall  discover  the 
constructive  program  which  He  had  for  a 
new  social  order  to  be  evolved  out  of  the  ele- 
ments of  the  old.  But  at  this  point,  with  the 
record  of  His  denunciations  before  us,  we  can- 
not fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  gulf  of  infi- 
nite dimensions  which  separates  the  Young 
Man  of  Galilee  from  all  the  other  great 
economic  reformers  of  history.  They  have 
protested  against  economic  wrong  because  it 
keeps  the  great  mass  of  men  from  having 
something  that  they  ought  to  have;  His  pro- 
test was  uttered  because  men.  His  brothers, 
were  prevented  from  being  something  which 


92  A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

they  ought  to  be,  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
their  Father,  God,  and  heirs  with  Him  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  evils  against 
which  He  protested  have  not  disappeared. 
There  are  still  rich  and  poor,  rulers  and  ruled, 
oppressors  and  oppressed.  But  He  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  oppressed  the  weapon  with 
which  social  righteousness  must  one  day  con- 
quer. He  taught  them  to  say  "Thou  shalt 
not  do  this  thing  to  me,  for  I,  too,  am  a  child 
of  God." 

Thus  He  stands  as  the  founder  and  guiding 
spirit  of  all  unselfish  protest  against  injustice; 
and  youth,  in  whose  hot  arteries  insurgency 
dwells,  claims  Him  for  its  own  on  that  account. 
But  the  form  of  His  protest  or  its  language 
become  meaningless,  unless  clothed  with  the 
reverence  for  human  souls  that  prompted  it, 
a  reverence  great  enough  to  include  even  the 
souls  of  them  whose  actions  He  denounced. 


VII 

THE  OUTSIDE  OF   THE  CUP 

NO  man  could  be  an  economic  insurgent 
in  Jesus'  day  without  being  a  reli- 
gious insurgent  as  well.  The  same 
system  that  was  responsible  for  the  poverty 
and  distress  of  the  common  people  had 
petrified  their  religion  into  a  cold,  formal 
thing  of  rites  and  ceremonies;  the  same  little 
band  of  priests  and  Pharisees  were  responsible 
for  and  profited  by  the  corruption  of  both  the 
social  organization  and  the  religious  life. 
Both  had  their  heart  and  center  in  the  Temple, 
that  great,  glittering  monument  to  a  dead 
faith  on  whose  construction  the  elder  Herod 
had  poured  out  the  lives  and  treasure  of  the 
-  nation  for  forty-six  years.  Jesus  had  laid  the 
axe  to  the  root  of  the  tree  unerringly  when  He 
opened  His  ministry  with  that  dramatic 
cleansing  of  the  Temple  court. 


94  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

Formalism  and  ritualism  sank  their  roots 
deeper  every  year  into  the  dying  faith  of  the 
people,  sucking  what  little  life-blood  remained. 
The  law  became  a  code  of  petty  exactions 
terrifying  in  their  detail,  and  grew  so  complex 
that  it  could  be  mastered  only  by  the  little 
group  of  Scribes  and  lawyers  in  Jerusalem 
who  devoted  their  whole  life  to  it:  they  took 
to  themselves  great  honor  because  of  their 
rigid  observance  of  every  requirement  and 
were  vehement  in  their  scorn  of  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  "which  knew  not  the  law"  and 
was  therefore  "accursed."  Sixty -four  pages 
in  the  accepted  version  of  the  code  were 
devoted  to  minute  prescriptions  as  to  what 
might  and  what  might  not  be  done  upon  the 
Sabbath.  Tithing  was  carried  by  the  formal- 
ists even  to  the  "mint  and  rue  and  every 
herb"  that  grew  about  their  houses.  A  large 
portion  of  every  day  was  expended  in  the 
various  ceremonial  washings  and  in  prayers 
made  ostentatiously  "in  the  market  places" 
and  in  deeds  done  "to  be  seen  of  men." 

Meanwhile  the  spirit  of  real  religion  was 
fast  dying  in  the  rank  and  file  of  the  nation: 


THE     OUTSIDE     OF     THE     CUP        95 

in  its  leaders  it  was  already  dead.  They 
"made  broad  their  phylacteries"  but  they 
despised  their  fellow  men;  they  made  a  show 
of  philanthropy,  but  they  employed  the  letter 
of  their  law,  as  the  Young  Man  of  GaUlee 
pointed  out  to  them  in  scathing  language,  to 
*' transgress  the  tradition  of  God." 

"For  God  said,"  He  repeated  to  them, 
"Honour  thy  father  and  mother,  and  he  that 
speaketh  evil  of  father  or  mother,  let  him  die 
the  death.  But  ye  say.  Whosoever  shall  say 
to  his  father  or  mother.  That  wherewith  thou 
mightest  have  been  profited  in  me  (the  support 
that  you  have  a  right  to  expect  from  me)  is 
Corban,  that  is  to  say,  is  given  to  God  —  ye 
no  longer  suffer  him  to  do  aught  for  his  father 
or  mother;  making  void  the  word  of  God  by 
your  tradition  which  ye  have  delivered;  and 
many  such  things  ye  do." 

Clearly  enough  He  realized  in  His  youthful 
idealism  that  the  moral  awakening  which  He 
strove  for  could  never  be  accomplished  until 
rehgion  was  rid  of  this  cankering  mass  of 
tradition  and  ritual.  From  the  very  beginning 
of  His  ministry,  straight  through  to  the  end, 


96  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

He  never  ceased  to  pour  forth  His  burning 
denunciations  of  the  whole  priestly  class,  who 
had  slain  the  faith  of  a  people  in  order  to  build 
up  a  ceremonial  law  for  their  own  use. 

"Woe  unto  you  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
hypocrites!"  —  the  words  were  constantly  in 
His  mouth  —  "for  ye  tithe  mint  and  anise 
and  cummin  and  have  left  undone  the  weigh- 
tier matters  of  the  law,  judgment  and  mercy 
and  faith.  Ye  blind  guides  which  strain  at 
a  gnat  and  swallow  a  camel. 

"Woe  unto  you  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
hypocrites!  for  ye  cleanse  the  outside  of  the 
cup  and  the  platter,  but  within  they  are  full  of 
extortion  and  excess.  Thou  blind  Pharisee, 
cleanse  first  the  inside  of  the  cup  and  the 
platter,  that  the  outside  thereof  may  become 
clean  also. 

"Woe  unto  you  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
hypocrites!  for  ye  are  like  unto  whited  sepul- 
chers  which  outwardly  appear  beautiful  but 
inwardly  are  full  of  dead  men's  bones  and  of 
all  uncleanness.  Even  so  ye  outwardly  appear 
righteous  unto  men,  but  inwardly  ye  are  full 
of  hypocrisy  and  iniquity. 


THE     OUTSIDE     OF     THE     CUP        97 

"Woe  unto  you  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
hypocrites!  for  ye  build  the  sepulchers  of 
prophets  and  garnish  the  tombs  of  the  right- 
eous, and  say,  If  we  had  been  in  the  days  of 
our  fathers  we  would  not  have  been  partakers 
with  them  in  the  blood  of  the  prophets. 
Wherefore  ye  witness  to  yourselves  that  ye 
are  sons  of  those  that  slew  the  prophets. 
Fill  ye  up  then  the  measure  of  your  fathers. 
Ye  serpents,  ye  offspring  of  vipers,  how  shall 
ye  escape  the  judgment  of  hell?  Therefore, 
behold,  I  send  unto  you  prophets,  and  wise 
men,  and  scribes;  some  of  them  shall  ye  kill 
and  crucify;  and  some  of  them  shall  ye 
scourge  in  your  synagogues,  and  persecute 
from  city  to  city." 

There  is  not  in  all  literature  more  scathing 
excoriation  than  this.  It  rises  in  majesty  and 
intensity  through  the  three  years  of  his  public 
work,  until  it  culminates  in  the  magnificent 
sentences  first  quoted  above,  delivered  in  the 
final  week  of  His  life  almost  under  the  very 
shadow  of  the  cross.  The  enthusiasm  with 
which  such  utterances  were  received  by  the 
common  people,  who  had  suffered  long  under 


98  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

the  intolerance  and  disdain  of  the  priests  and 
therefore  "heard  him  gladly,"  was  equalled 
only  by  the  hatred  which  they  engendered 
in  the  hearts  of  those  against  whom  they  were 
hurled.  In  the  earnestness  of  His  protest, 
His  actions  and  examples  spoke  even  more 
loudly  than  His  words.  So  eager  was  He 
to  establish  the  truth  that  real  religion  is  a 
matter  of  spirit,  purpose,  and  desire  rather 
than  of  ritual  or  presented  performance,  that 
He  swung  His  disciples  away  from  every 
formal  act,  no  matter  how  harmless,  which 
might  crystallize  later  into  a  ceremony  to 
plague  His    faith. 

Among  all  the  Jewish  religious  customs 
none  was  more  severely  enjoined  than  fasting. 
As  originally  instituted  by  Moses  in  the 
wilderness,  fasting  had  unquestionably  con- 
tributed to  the  health  and  vigor  of  the  nation, 
but  it  had  long  since  degenerated  into  a  mere 
religious  formality,  and  was  much  abused. 
Nevertheless  John  had  practised  fasting  and 
it  was  his  disciples,  worried  by  the  good 
fellowship  and  convivial  habits  of  Jesus,  who 
had  put  the  question  to  Him; 


THE     OUTSIDE     OF     THE     CUP        99 

"Why  do  we  and  the  Pharisees  fast  oft, 
but  Thy  disciples  fast  not?" 

In  His  answer,  had  they  but  understood  it, 
He  embodied  the  whole  philosophy  and  pur- 
pose of  His  antagonism  to  forms  and  cere- 
monies. 

"No  man  putteth  new  wine  into  old 
wineskins,"  He  said,  "lest  the  wineskins 
burst  and  the  wine  be  spilled.  I  must 
have  an  entirely  new  container  for  my 
message:  the  old  forms  and  customs  are 
weak  and  rotting;  if  I  consent  merely  to 
pour  my  new  gospel  into  them  it  will 
not  remake  them.  They  will  merely  burst 
and  my  message  will  be  lost  in  the  general 
ruin." 

When  Scribes  and  Pharisees  from  Jerusalem 
came  to  ask  Him,  "Why  do  Thy  disciples 
transgress  the  tradition  of  the  elders,  for 
they  wash  not  their  hands  when  they  eat 
bread?"  His  answer  was,  "Why  do  ye 
also  transgress  the  commandment  of  God 
because  of  your  tradition?  Ye  hypocrites," 
He  continued,  "well  did  Isaiah  prophesy  of 
you  saying. 


100         A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

This  people  honoureth  me  with  their  lips. 

But  their  heart  is  far  from  me. 

But  in  vain  do  they  worship  me. 

Teaching  as  their  doctrines  the  precepts  of  men." 

Like  the  other  religious  institutions  of  the 
nation,  the  Sabbath  and  attendance  at  the 
Synagogue  had  become  idols  whose  neglect 
was  punishable  with  a  detailed  list  of  penalties. 
Some  of  the  bitterest  controversies  in  the  hfe 
of  the  Young  Man  were  waged  over  His 
refusal  to  recognize  any  other  necessity  on  the 
Sabbath  except  the  divine  injunction  to  rest 
and  to  worship.  Usually,  to  be  sure,  He 
entered  into  the  Synagogue  —  "as  was  His 
custom  —  "  but  not  always.  Sometimes  He 
would  take  His  disciples  for  a  walk.  And  if 
in  the  course  of  the  excursion  they  passed 
through  cornfields  they  did  not  hesitate  to 
satisfy  their  hunger,  even  though  by  so  doing 
they  violated  no  less  than  five  separate  articles 
of  the  Jewish  law.  Again  and  again  the  Phari- 
sees came  to  Him  in  a  towering  rage  because 
of  His  violation  of  their  tradition  and  nothing 
in  His  life  illustrates  better  His  supreme 
mastery  of  men  than  the  interviews  which 


THE     OUTSIDE     OF     THE     CUP      101 

followed.  For  He  did  not  content  Himself 
with  mere  denunciations  of  their  narrowness: 
out  of  His  intimate  knowledge  of  history  and 
the  literature  of  His  nation.  He  drew  illustra- 
tions to  support  His  course,  even  quoting 
sometimes  their  own  law  to  confute  them. 

"Why  do  you  find  fault  with  my  disciples 
for  plucking  the  ears  on  the  Sabbath?"  He 
inquired  in  pretended  astonishment.  "Don't 
you  remember  how  David  when  he  was  hungry 
went  into  the  Temple  and  ate  the  shew-bread 
which  is  not  lawful  to  be  eaten  by  any  except 
the  priests?  Surely  if  David  was  not  to  be 
condemned  you  need  not  blame  me." 

And  when  they  protested  because  He  had 
healed  a  sick  man  on  the  Sabbath,  He  said, 

"Does  not  your  law  allow  a  man  if  his  sheep 
or  his  ass  fall  into  a  pit  on  the  Sabbath  to  pull 
him  out?  Is  it  any  less  lawful  for  me  to  pull 
this  man  out  of  the  pit  of  his  infirmity? 
What  is  your  idea  of  the  law,  anyway?  Is  it 
lawful  on  the  Sabbath  day  to  do  good  or  to 
do  harm,  to  save  life  or  to  kill?  The  Sabbath 
was  made  for  man,  not  man  for  the  Sabbath." 

They  could  not  answer  the  logic  of  His 


102         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

contentions,  but  they  recognized  how  fatal 
His  teaching  must  prove  to  their  rehgious 
system  and  the  position  of  prominence  which 
they  enjoyed  because  of  it.  Thus  shortly  after 
this  incident  we  find  the  Pharisees  (who  were 
ordinarily  bitter  against  the  followers  of 
Herod)  sinking  their  personal  differences  in 
the'  overwhelming  hatred  which  both  classes 
had  come  to  feel  for  this  common  enemy,  and 
"straightway  taking  counsel  with  the  Hero- 
dians  how  they  might  destroy  Him." 

He  did  not  Himself  baptize  any  of  His 
converts  but  allowed  His  disciples  to  do  so, 
since  baptism  was  a  custom  with  whose 
significance  the  people  as  a  whole  were 
familiar,  but  He  apparently  attached  little 
importance  to  it.  Indeed  He  was  jealous  of 
any  rite  or  ceremony  which  might  come  to 
attain  an  undue  value,  and  so  weaken  the 
emphasis  which  He  sought  to  place  upon  the 
essentially  spiritual  quality  of  religion  and 
worship.  His  whole  life  was  a  living  protest 
against  a  formalism  which  had  held  the  human 
soul  in  bondage.  "God  is  a  spirit:  it  is  not 
in  a  mountain  or  in  temples  that  He  would  be 


THE     OUTSIDE     OF     THE     CUP      103 

worshipped,  not  with  rites  or  ceremonies,  but 
in  the  ideals  and  purposes,  the  spirit  of  your 
Hfe."  This  was  His  message  —  the  truth 
that    sets    men    spiritually    free. 

Nothing  was  farther  from  the  desire  of  the 
Pharisees  and  priests  than  that  men  should 
be  free;  their  whole  existence  was  dependent 
upon  a  complicated  code  which  kept  the 
spirit  of  the  nation  trammeled;  if  they  were 
to  continue  to  *' occupy  the  chief  seats  at  the 
feasts,"  and  '*  receive  salutations  in  the  market 
places,"  the  law  must  be  enforced  in  its  every 
letter.  Once  allow  a  single  precept  to  be 
questioned  and  there  would  be  loosed  a  spirit 
of  interrogation  which  would  not  rest  until  the 
whole  vicious  structure  should  be  destroyed. 
If  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee,  in  the  first  flush 
of  His  youthful  idealism,  failed  to  realize  how 
insurmountable  were  the  ramparts  against 
which  He  was  striking,  the  realization  was 
not  long  delayed.  After  the  death  of  John 
the  Baptist  He  no  longer  deluded  Himself 
with  the  hope  that  in  His  single  lifetime  the 
whole  nation  might  be  stirred  to  the  beauty 
of  the  vision  which  shone  in  His  own  soul. 


104         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

It  was  necessary  first  that  seed  should  be 
planted  and  watered  with  blood. 

So,  young  as  He  was  and  throbbing  with  the 
joy  of  life,  He  ofifered  His  life  as  the  final 
protest  against  the  ritualism  and  greed  and 
selfishness  that  were  eating  out  the  soul  of 
His  people.  The  system  that  had  sought 
His  destruction  emerged  triumphant;  but  its 
triumph  was  surprisingly  short  lived.  His 
work  had  been  too  well  performed.  Within 
a  single  generation  after  He  had  gone  His 
followers  had  penetrated  into  the  eternal  city 
itself,  the  center  and  heart  of  all  greed  and 
formalism,  proclaiming  "ye  shall  know  the 
truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free." 
And  in  far-off  Macedonia  the  cry  was  raised, 
"They  that  have  turned  the  world  upside 
down  have  come  hither  also." 

So  end  the  two  chapters  in  which  we  have 
walked  with  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  in 
the  hours  of  His  insurgency,  hours  when  His 
anger  blazed  hot  against  intolerance  and 
formalism  and  extortion  and  greed.  So  sacred 
was  human  life  in  His  sight,  so  reverent  was 


THE     OUTSIDE     OF     THE     CUP      105 

He  in  the  presence  of  every  atom  of  person- 
ality, no  matter  what  its  outward  dress,  that 
He  could  not  but  cry  against  the  infamy  that 
had  ground  out  personahty  under  the  wheels 
of  ritualism,  and  sacrificed  souls  to  a  system. 
Yet  here  again  the  ear  must  guard  itself  lest 
a  part  only  of  the  message  be  received,  lest 
beneath  the  flaming  syllables,  "woe  unto  you 
scribes  and  pharisees,  hypocrites,"  it  should 
fail  to  hear  the  gentler  tones,  "do  good  to 
them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  that 
despitefully  use  you":  lest  in  the  tumult  that 
attends  the  seeming  triumph  of  His  adver- 
saries, there  should  be  lost  the  last  words 
spoken  by  the  lips  that  had  denounced  them, 
"Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do." 


VIII 

''AS   YOURSELF" 

WAS  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  an 
Individualist,  a  Socialist,  an  An- 
archist, a  Single  Taxer,  a  Social 
Settlement  Worker,  a  Communist,  a  Woman 
Suffragist?  All  these  cults  and  a  thousand 
others  have  laid  eager  hold  upon  Him,  snatch- 
ing at  this  or  that  sentence  in  His  teachings 
to  support  their  claim.  Can  He  be  classified 
with  one  of  these  groups,  or  was  His  social 
philosophy  too  broad  to  be  included  in  any 
of  them?  Had  He  any  real  social  philosophy 
at  all;  and  if  so  what  is  it,  and  how  much 
guidance  does  it  afford  in  the  myriad  problems 
of  our  complex  modern  society? 

Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  He  did 
have  a  clearly -defined  remedy  for  the  evils 
which  He  struck  at  so  vigorously,  and  that 
He  believed  its  application  would  heal  every 
social  complaint.     He  was  no  mere  denouncer. 


AS     YOURSELF  107 

That  was  John's  difficulty.  People  flocked 
around  John  to  nod  their  heads  in  approval 
when  he  characterized  the  Pharisees  and 
priests  as  a  "generation  of  vipers,"  but  when 
they  asked  him  what  they  were  to  do  about 
it  he  was  nonplussed.  He  had  nothing  to 
suggest  except  that  those  with  two  coats 
should  divide  with  those  who  had  none,  and 
that  the  publicans  should  cease  their  extor- 
tions and  the  soldiers  refrain  from  violence. 
It  was  an  unsatisfactory  program:  John 
was  as  keenly  conscious  of  the  fact  as  were 
his  auditors,  and  he  looked  eagerly  for  the 
arising  of  a  greater  prophet  than  himself  who 
should  lead  the  people  boldly  along  the  rough 
road  which  his  denunciations  had  blazed  out 
—  and  beyond.  His  wish  was  not  long  in 
being  gratified.  Within  a  few  weeks  the 
disciples  of  Jesus  were  baptizing  more  than 
John,  and  the  Pharisees  had  turned  their 
attention  away  from  him  to  this  new  enemy 
of  their  privilege. 

It  required  no  careful  process  of  reasoning 
to  align  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  on  the  side 
of  the  poor:   He  was  born  on  their  side;   He 


108         A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

grew  up  a  poor  peasant,  practising  a  trade 
which,  in  common  with  all  other  trades  and 
all  merchandising,  was  regarded  with  disdain 
and  contempt  by  the  well  to  do.  The  "com- 
mon people"  who  "heard  Him  gladly"  had 
no  need  to  pour  out  the  story  of  their  priva- 
tions in  His  ear:  He,  too,  had  gone  to  bed 
hungry;  He  had  felt  the  biting  chill  of  a  cold 
morning;  He  knew  what  it  was  to  have  "no 
place  to  lay  His  head."  The  very  day  of 
His  birth  was  the  day  designated  by  the 
decree  of  Csesar  on  which  "all  the  world 
should  be  taxed";  and  often  in  His  youth 
He  must  have  witnessed  the  heart-breaking 
scenes  which  attended  the  collection  of  a 
tax  from  some  poverty-stricken  neighbors. 
Yet  this  experience  had  not  embittered 
Him,  nor  narrowed  His  vision.  He  could 
always  see  the  other  man's  point  of  view: 
in  His  virile  denunciation  of  the  wealthier 
classes.  He  was  broadminded  enough  to 
recognize  exceptions,  and  to  welcome  among 
His  friends  at  least  some  rich  men  whose 
wealth  had  not  destroyed  their  social  con- 
sciousness. 


AS     YOURSELF  109 

Nevertheless  He  felt,  as  did  every  prophet 
of  His  race  before  Him,  that  surplus  wealth 
is  the  great  impeder  of  any  program  for 
social  betterment,  and  that  the  gnawing  greed 
for  wealth  with  which  the  world  of  His  day 
was  eaten  was  responsible  for  all  of  its  other 
troubles.  "And  the  cares  of  the  world,  and 
the  deceitfulness  of  riches,"  He  says,  "choke 
the  word,  and  it  becometh  unfruitful." 
"How,  hardly,  shall  they  that  have  riches 
enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God."  That 
sentiment  stands  out  boldly  in  a  number  of 
those  story -preachments  which  were  His  pecu- 
liar method  of  conveying  moral  truth. 

There  was  a  certain  rich  man.  He  said, 
named  Dives,  who  lived  on  the  fat  of  the  land; 
and  a  beggar,  Lazarus,  was  accustomed  to  he 
at  the  rich  man's  door  and  ask  for  alms. 
In  course  of  time.  Death,  the  great  leveler  of 
all  social  distinctions,  removed  them  both, 
Lazarus  to  his  reward.  Dives  to  punishment. 
Dives  in  the  midst  of  his  distress  looked 
across  and  seeing  Lazarus  in  Abraham's 
bosom  asked  that  he  might  be  sent  down  with 
a  cup  of  water.     The  request  was  refused,  not 


110         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

merely  because  Dives  had  received  his  riches 
and  pleasures  in  his  lifetime,  while  Lazarus 
had  suffered,  but  because  between  the  two 
there  was  a  "great  gulf  fixed,"  which  neither 
might  cross  over. 

The  story  as  the  Young  Man  related  it  did 
not  say  that  Dives  was  a  bad  man,  nor  that 
he  had  gained  his  wealth  dishonestly.  The 
inference  is  that  he  had  inherited  it  and  had 
grown  up  never  knowing  any  other  life  than 
that  of  a  well  to  do  idler.  Undoubtedly  he 
occasionally  threw  alms  to  Lazarus  as  he 
passed  in  and  out  of  his  home,  and  regarded 
himself  as  a  thoroughly  respectable  and 
valued  member  of  society,  furnishing  employ- 
ment by  his  wealth  to  many  laboring  men  and 
making  occasional  routine  contributions  to 
the  Associated  Charities  of  the  city.  It  was 
with  the  bitterest  astonishment  that  he  dis- 
covered the  positions  of  himself  and  the  beggar 
reversed  in  the  other  world.  He  had  assumed, 
of  course,  that  he  would  go  on  through  eternity 
as  he  had  through  time,  comfortable,  well 
cared  for,  deferred  to.  His  sin  was  not  in 
any  actual  oppression  for  which  he  was  re- 


AS     YOURSELF  111 

sponsible,  but  in  the  isolation  from  his  fellow 
men  which  his  wealth  created.  It  never 
occurred  to  him  that  he  had  any  brotherly 
responsibility  for  Lazarus  nor  for  anyone  else. 
The  protecting  walls  of  his  fortune  drew  in 
closer  upon  him  as  years  passed,  narrowing 
his  vision.  He  became  more  firmly  convinced 
of  the  divine  right  of  money,  more  certain 
that  he  and  his  kind  were  the  bulwarks  of 
society,  more  impatient  at  any  voice  that 
was  lifted  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  men  as 
against  the  rights  of  property.  The  gulf 
between  himself  and  Lazarus  was  not  one 
arbitrarily  created  in  an  after  life.  He  him- 
self had  created  it  in  the  selfish  enjoyment  of 
his  wealth;  it  had  grown  with  the  shrinking 
in  upon  itself  of  his  own  nature,  until  it  was 
impassable. 

A  clean-cut,  fine-featured  young  fellow  ran 
up  to  the  Young  Man  one  day,  and  kneeling 
before  Him  said,  "Good  Master,  what  shall 
I  do  to  inherit  eternal  Hfe?"  And  the  Young 
Man  said, 

"You  know  the  commandments  —  do  not 
kill,  do  not  commit  adultery,  do  not  steal,  do 


112         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

not  bear  false  witness,  do  not  defraud,  honour 
thy  father  and  mother." 

The  inquirer  smiled  happily.  "Master," 
he  said,  "I  have  done  all  these  things  from 
my  youth  up." 

And  Jesus  loved  him;  he  was  so  genuine 
in  his  enthusiasm,  so  apparently  eager  to 
lead  a  life  of  respectable  usefulness. 

"One  thing  thou  lackest,"  He  replied,  "go 
sell  whatsoever  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor, 
and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  Heaven; 
and  come,  follow  me." 

"But  his  countenance  fell  at  the  saying 
and  he  went  away  sorrowful,  for  he  was  very 
rich." 

Jesus,  looking  after  him  pityingly,  as  he 
walked  away,  said  to  His  disciples,  "How 
almost  impossible  it  is  for  a  man  that  has 
riches  to  enter  into  the  Eangdom  of  Heaven." 

That  wealth  cuts  a  man  off  from  his  fellows 
and  so  unfits  him  for  the  exercise  of  brother- 
hood, and  that  the  greed  for  wealth  is  the 
root  of  all  social  evil  —  these  were  the  Young 
Man's  convictions,  oft  reiterated.  To  the 
Pharisees  who  were  "lovers  of  money"  He 


AS     YOURSELF  113 

told  the  parable  of  the  Unjust  Steward  with 
its  solemn  warning,  "No  man  can  serve  two 
masters,  for  either  he  will  hate  the  one  and 
love  the  other;  or  else  he  will  hold  to  the  one 
and  despise  the  other.  Ye  cannot  serve  God 
and  Mammon."  The  whole  ancient  world, 
from  Caesar  down,  might  have  seen  itself  pic- 
tured in  the  story  of  the  man  who  in  his  eager- 
ness to  grow  richer,  "tore  down  his  barns 
that  he  might  build  greater"  and  had  pro- 
nounced upon  him  the  searching  question, 
"  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul?" 

"It  shall  not  be  so  among  you,"  said  the 
Young  Man  of  Nazareth,  pointing  to  the 
bitter  spectacle  of  a  society  wearied  and 
desolated  in  its  madness  after  riches  and 
sensual  pleasure.  "Whosoever  will  be  great 
among  you  let  him  be  your  minister;  and 
whosoever  shall  be  chiefest  shall  be  servant 
of  all.  For  even  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to 
be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister."  It  shot 
through  the  turgid  atmosphere  of  that  self- 
serving,  loveless  world  like  the  cleansing  flash 
of    lightning  —  this    law    of    service,    which 


114         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

was  to  rule  the  new  social  order.  If  a  man 
would  hold  the  highest  place  let  him  be  the 
greatest  servant;  not  the  greatest  menial,  the 
greatest  butler,  or  the  greatest  footman;  but 
the  greatest  servant,  as  Edison  has  been,  or  as 
Lincoln  was.  If  any  man  have  wealth,  let 
him  regard  himself  as  his  brother's  keeper,  a 
trustee  of  Almighty  God. 

Wealth,  said  the  Young  Man,  is  like  every 
other  talent:  the  man  who  is  most  richly 
endowed  is  required  by  God  to  render  the 
largest  return.  And  He  illustrated  it  by  the 
story  of  a  wealthy  man,  who,  departing  into 
a  far  country,  gave  to  each  of  his  servants  a 
certain  sum  of  money  in  trusteeship,  until  he 
should  return.  When  the  day  of  reckoning 
arrived  it  was  found  that  some  servants  had 
employed  their  gifts  to  such  good  advantage 
as  to  double  them  in  their  master's  interest. 
These  were  promoted,  and  having  been  faith- 
ful in  small  trusts  were  given  larger  ones. 
To  those,  however,  who  had  done  badly  no 
reward  was  given,  and  the  single  servant  who 
because  he  had  had  but  one  talent  had  thought 
it  not  worth  while  to  make  any  effort  at  all, 


AS     YOURSELF  115 

was  stripped  of  even  the  little  that  he  had,  and 
suffered  severe  condemnation.  Whatever  the 
amount  of  possession,  either  material  or  men- 
tal, it  is  a  loan  from  God,  to  be  employed  with 
the  utmost  efficiency  in  the  service  of  His 
children.  According  as  a  man  serves  his 
fellow  men  shall  he  have  honor  —  this,  said 
the  Young  Man,  is  the  whole  law  and  the 
prophets. 

It  is  easy  to  pick  His  teachings  to  pieces 
and  to  find  in  them  commendation  for  this 
modern  propaganda  or  that.  He  who  said 
"it  is  better  that  a  millstone  were  hung  around 
your  neck  and  you  were  drowned  in  the  sea 
than  that  you  should  blight  the  lives  of  one 
of  these  little  children,"  would  unquestionably 
align  himself  with  the  foes  of  child  labor. 
Hanging  His  whole  social  hope  as  He  did 
upon  the  preservation  of  the  family,  it  seems 
sure  that  the  Young  Man,  if  He  were  living 
today,  would  take  an  exceedingly  conservative 
attitude  on  the  question  of  divorce;  certainly 
He  would  do  His  utmost  to  end  the  exploita- 
tion of  the  labor  of  women  in  industry.  He 
who  defined  adultery  not  alone  as  a  physical 


116         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

act,  but  as  impurity  of  mind  as  well  would 
loose  the  vials  of  His  wrath  upon  those  that 
share  in  the  blood-profits  of  the  white  slave 
traffic. 

All  this  and  much  else  one  may  conjecture 
as  to  His  attitude  on  modern  social  problems, 
citing  His  own  words  in  proof.  Yet  it  may 
properly  be  questioned  whether  the  Young 
Man  of  Galilee,  were  He  at  work  today, 
would  scatter  His  energies  very  much  in  pro- 
paganda aimed  against  specific  evils.  He 
did  not  do  so  in  His  three  years  in  Palestine. 
There  were  robbery,  and  social  crime,  and  a 
hundred  other  problems  in  that  day,  no  one 
of  which  is  specifically  dealt  with  in  His 
discourses.  His  work,  as  He  conceived  it, 
was  not  to  form  committees  to  deal  with  the 
varied  shortcomings  of  life  individually,  but 
to  create  in  those  with  whom  He  came  into 
contact  a  new  heart  and  to  renew  a  right  spirit 
within  them.  To  this  end  He  devoted  Him- 
self with  a  fixed  purpose  that  never  wavered. 
The  new  heart,  and  the  right  spirit.  He  knew 
—  if  He  inspired  them  in  a  sufficient  number 
of  people  —  would  banish  greed  with  all  its 


AS     YOURSELF  117 

attendant  evils  and  usher  in  the  brighter  day 
of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

So  He  said  to  Martha,  who  was  doubtless 
a  member  of  a  score  of  synagogue  committees, 
and  sewing  societies  and  tenement  commis- 
sions and  working-girls'  leagues,  and  was 
"cumbered  with  much  serving":  *' Martha, 
Martha,  thou  art  anxious  and  troubled  about 
many  things,  but  one  thing  is  needful.  Seek 
ye  first  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven;  and  this  is 
the  law  of  the  Kingdom  —  to  love  the  Lord 
thy  God,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

Not  "more  than  thyself,"  as  some  preachers 
in  their  over-emphasis  would  have  it  inferred. 
The  Young  Man  of  Galilee  was  first  of  all  a 
preacher  of  self-respect,  in  a  world  out  of 
which  self-respect  had  been  almost  crushed 
by  greed  and  intolerance. 

"You  are  to  love  yourself,"  the  Young 
Man  would  say,  "for  you,  too,  are  a  member 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  To  debase  your- 
self in  the  service  of  your  neighbor  is  to  do 
injury  to  a  child  of  God  as  truly  as  though 
you  sinned  against  another.  But  having 
developed  a  wholesome  self-respect,  a  right- 


118         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

eous  love  for  yourself  as  a  child  of  God,  you 
are  to  love  your  neighbor  with  an  equal 
affection.  Loving  him,  you  will  be  a  good 
citizen,  because  the  efficiency  of  the  various 
activities  of  your  city  and  state  —  its  schools 
and  police  and  health  —  is  essential  to  your 
neighbor's  happiness  and  to  yours.  Loving 
him,  you  will  not  underpay  nor  overwork  his 
son  who  is  in  your  office,  nor  mislead  his 
daughter,  nor  defraud  him  of  his  lands  nor 
covet  his  goods.  You  will  extend  the  cir- 
cumference of  your  sympathies  until  it  be- 
comes a  horizon,  embracing  the  whole  world 
of  God's  children.  Thus  men  shall  come  to 
know  God  by  His  love  exemplified  in  you, 
and  'seeing  your  good  works  shall  glorify 
your  Father  who  is  in  Heaven.' " 

It  seemed  a  singularly  simple  program  with 
which  to  replace  the  complicated  system  of 
economic  wrong  which  He  protested  against; 
and  yet  the  world  has  not  yet  grown  beyond 
it.  "Love  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself,"  is  still  the  social  gospel  of 
those  who  cherish  the  purest,  widest  vision  of 
the  social  future  of  the  race.     It  is  His  whole 


AS     YOURSELF  119 

economic  message  compressed  into  a  single 
sentence.  And  to  every  program  or  move- 
ment for  social  betterment,  in  proportion 
as  it  partakes  of  the  spirit  of  this  Gospel, 
He  contributes  a  sympathetic  and  virile 
allegiance. 


IX 

"FIRST  THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN'* 

IT  is  hardly  fair  to  the  Young  Man  of 
Gahlee  to  separate  His  social  and  His 
rehgious  teachings  even  by  putting  them 
into  different  chapters.  His  whole  thirty- 
three  years  was  spent  in  an  effort  to  erase  the 
artificial  barrier  which  men  had  erected  be- 
tween religion  and  life,  to  show  that  all  right 
living  is  worship,  that  the  full-hearted  enjoy- 
ment of  a  social  occasion  is  no  less  religious 
than  attendance  on  a  church  service,  that  man 
may  push  a  plane  to  the  glory  of  God  as  truly 
as  he  may  preach  a  sermon.  Yet  books  have 
to  be  divided  into  chapters  or  no  one  would 
read  them  —  and  in  this  chapter  we  want  to 
set  down  in  the  fewest  possible  words  just 
what  it  was  that  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee 
left  His  carpenter's  bench  to  say  about  religion 
and  about  God. 

We  have  seen  already  how  His  youthful 


THE     KINGDOM     OF     HEAVEN       121 

idealism  flamed  against  the  religious  system 
which  had  debased  the  simple  faith  of  the 
prophets  into  the  bloodless  formalism  of  the 
Temple  worship;  and  how  almost  the  very- 
first  act  of  His  public  hfe  was  to  strike  a 
ringing  blow  at  that  system.  He  found  the 
ten  commandments  of  Moses  pulverized  into 
more  than  six  hundred  petty  *'thou  shalts" 
and  "thou  shalt  nots";  the  priests  and 
Temple  given  over  to  doctrine  and  to  greed 
while  the  people  perished;  the  nation  blinded 
and  being  led  by  the  blind.  He  had  seen  how 
the  same  condition  had  repeated  itself  again 
and  again  in  Jewish  history,  one  prophet  after 
another  arising  with  his  "Thus  saith  Jehovah 
thy  God"  and  attempting  to  call  the  nation 
away  from  form  and  back  to  faith. 

"Bring  no  more  vain  oblations:  incense  is  an 
abomination  to  me :  the  new  moons  and  Sabbaths, 
the  callings  of  assemblies,  I  cannot  away  with; 
it  is  iniquity,  even  the  solemn  meeting :  your  new 
moons  and  your  appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth." 

So  Jehovah  had  said  through  the  mouth  of 
Isaiah  his  prophet,  and  the  words  must  have 


122         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

vibrated  through  the  Young  Man's  soul  on 
every  visit  into  the  pandemonium  of  the 
Temple.  It  was  inconceivable  to  Him  that 
the  educated  men  and  women  of  His  time 
could  have  studied  their  own  literature  to  so 
little  purpose;  could  have  mumbled  over  the 
writings  of  the  prophets  until  they  knew  them 
by  heart  and  still  have  gathered  nothing  what- 
ever of  the  prophets'  clear,  simple  picture  of 
the  nature  of  God. 

"He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is 
good,"  said  Micah;  "and  what  doth  Jehovah 
require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to 
love  kindness,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God?" 

In  that  paragraph  the  Young  Man  found 
summarized  all  the  teaching  which  the  proph- 
ets had  striven  to  din  into  the  ears  of  the 
people  since  the  days  of  Moses;  starting  with 
that  He  built  His  own  teaching,  the  purest, 
most  simple,  most  satisfying  conception  of  God 
and  religion  that  the  world  has  ever  known. 
To  the  confused  and  embittered  disputes  that 
raged  all  about  Him,  to  the  heated  conten- 
tions about  duties  and  rites,  heaven  and  hell, 


THE     KINGDOM     OF     HEAVEN        123 

the  saved  and  the  unsaved.  He  appHed  one 
all-powerful  dissolvent.  "When  ye  pray,"  He 
said,  "say  'Our  Father.'" 

Pretty  nearly  all  His  religious  teaching 
may  be  summarized  in  those  two  words: 
certainly  all  of  it,  if  we  add  to  them  these 
also,  "Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and 
his  righteousness."  Once  catch  the  vision  of 
His  full  meaning  in  these  simple  phrases,  and 
you  have  the  whole  message  which  He  came 
to  bring;  the  message  that,  distorted  into  a 
thousand  creeds,  still  lives  to  give  vitahty  to 
the  church  and  to  religion. 

"God  is  your  father,"  He  told  that  soul- 
sick,  oppressed  crowd  that  jostled  about  Him 
on  the  shores  of  Galilee,  and  the  words  blew 
down  into  the  spirits  of  each  one  of  them, 
clear  to  the  bottom,  where  there  yet  smol- 
dered a  tiny  flickering  ember  of  self-respect, 
and  fanned  it  into  flame.  They  had  never 
been  told  such  gospel  as  that,  such  good  news, 
for  that  is  what  "gospel"  means.  They  had 
heard  themselves  spoken  of  as  "accursed"  and 
as  "outside  the  law,"  as  "fools,"  and  "slaves," 
for  so  long  a  time  as  almost  to  believe  they 


124         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

were.  Here  was  one  who  told  them  that 
they  were  children  of  God,  that  not  a  hair  of 
their  heads  could  be  touched  without  His 
knowledge,  that  they  might  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  before  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees.  Those  who  wonder  why  the  com- 
mon people  of  that  day  "heard  Him  gladly," 
while  the  common  people  of  this  day  pass  by 
the  church,  may  find  here  some  gleam  of  light. 
People  are  interested  always  in  news:  what 
that  crowd  of  tired-eyed  Galileans  heard  was 
the  greatest  news  that  had  ever  come  into 
the  world.  Human  nature  has  not  changed. 
When  the  Church  has  news  to  give,  men  will 
crowd  its  doorways  and  stand  before  it  in  the 
streets. 

"God  is  your  father,"  He  said,  and  the 
inference  was  very  plain.  "If  you  say  you 
believe  that  to  be  true,  and  do  not  respect 
yourself,  do  not  hold  your  own  personality  in 
sacred  reverence  as  a  thing  of  supreme  con- 
cern to  the  Maker  of  the  world,  you  are  de- 
ceiving yourself  —  you  do  not  really  believe 
it  —  you  are  not  really  my  friend;  you  can- 
not properly  call  yourself  a  Christian." 


THE     KINGDOM    OF    HEAVEN        125 

"God  is  your  father."  If  you  say  you 
believe  that  and  are  not  happy;  if  you  do  not 
greet  the  morning  sun  with  a  smile  on  your 
lips;  if  you  do  not  fill  every  day  with  the 
most  joyous  wholesome  good  time;  if  you 
have  not  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  and 
happiest  man  on  your  street,  you  only  half 
believe  in  your  heart  what  your  lips  repeat. 

The  chief  business  of  a  father  is  to  love  his 
children,  said  the  Young  Man.  Your  Father 
loves  you;  in  making  this  world  He  has  done 
the  best  He  knows  how  to  provide  a  place  that 
will  give  you  a  lifelong  good  time.  If  you  do 
not  find  it  good  you  are  hurting  Him;  every 
frown  that  crosses  your  face,  every  harsh 
word  that  passes  your  lips,  is  a  criticism  of 
His  world,  or  of  one  of  His  children,  and 
strikes  deep  into  His  heart.  On  the  other 
hand  every  smile  is  worship;  every  hearty 
laugh  is  a  Te  Deum;  every  word  of  praise  or 
hand-shake  is  a  Hallelujah  Chorus. 

This  is  the  news  that  the  Young  Man 
flashed  across  the  dead  sky  of  that  weary, 
sin-sick,  poverty-stricken  world;  no  wonder 
the  crowds  hardly  allowed  Him  time  to  eat  in 


126    A  YOUNG  man's  JESUS 

their  eagerness  to  have  Him  repeat  it.  His 
message  had  its  obHgations  as  well  as  its 
benefit.  Love  is  a  two-sided  business;  he 
who  covets  its  enjoyments  must  stand  ready 
to  fulfil  its  duties.  "You  cannot  please  your 
Father,"  said  the  Young  Man,  "unless  you 
really  love  the  other  members  of  His  family 
as  He  loves  them.  You  must  learn  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  'common  people,'  that 
nothing  which  God  has  made  is  'common  or 
unclean,'  that  every  human  being  with  which 
he  has  clothed  a  spark  of  his  spirit  is  to  him 
sacred."  Any  thought  or  action,  any  institu- 
tion or  social  usage  that  oppresses  one  or  more 
of  these  sacred  children,  that  makes  it  harder 
for  them  to  hve  their  lives  to  the  full,  to  ex- 
press themselves  to  the  limit  of  their  capacity, 
is  sinful.  Whatever  cheers  and  raises  up, 
whether  it  be  a  cathedral  mass  or  a  ball  game, 
a  communion  service  or  a  social  party,  is  holy 
unto  the  Lord. 

"It  does  not  make  any  difference  where 
you  worship  God,"  the  Young  Man  said  to 
the  Samaritan  woman,  "whether  in  this 
mountain,  as  your  people  are  taught,  or  in 


THE     KINGDOM     OF     HEAVEN        127 

Jerusalem,  as  the  Jews  contend.  God  is  a 
spirit:  they  that  worship  Him  must  do  so  in 
spirit,  in  the  real  purpose  and  aim  of  their 
lives." 

They  brought  Him  one  day  a  poor  woman 
who  had  been  taken  in  adultery.  A  very 
righteous,  holier-than-thou  crowd  of  Pharisees 
and  scribes  it  was  that  brought  her:  most  of 
them  had  not  been  absent  from  the  Synagogue 
on  a  single  Sabbath  for  years ;  not  a  single  jot 
nor  tittle  of  the  cumbersome  law  had  escaped 
their  obedience;  they  looked  disdainfully  on 
this  unschooled  carpenter-prophet,  this  man 
who  associated  with  publicans  and  sinners,  as 
they  set  the  cringing,  red-faced  girl  before 
Him. 

"For  this  crime  Moses  said  that  we  might 
stone  her,"  they  told  Him.  "What  do  you 
say.?" 

He  did  not  answer  them  immediately,  but 
stooped  down  and  wrote  on  the  ground. 
Perhaps  the  words  He  wrote  were  names  of 
places  or  people  in  the  city  whose  memory 
caused  severe  discomfort  among  that  smug, 
accusing  company;  perhaps  He  wrote  merely 


128         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

to  hide  the  smile  that  played  across  His  face 
as  He  considered  the  effect  that  His  reply 
would  produce.     Finally  He  said: 

"Let  the  one  among  you  who  is  sinless  cast 
the  first  stone." 

Still  He  stooped  low,  and  traced  with  His 
finger  in  the  sand,  and  when  at  length  He 
looked  up,  every  man  of  them  had  slunk  away 
leaving  the  woman  there  with  Him  alone. 

"Daughter,"  He  said,  "where  are  they  that 
accuse  thee?" 

"They  are  gone,"  she  answered. 

"Is  not  one  left  to  condemn  thee?  No? 
Neither  do  I  condemn  thee;  go  and  sin  no 
more." 

He  whose  soul  was  stung  into  hot  protest 
at  the  long  prayers  and  blatant  cant  of  the 
Pharisees  could  find  no  word  of  censure  for 
the  sin  of  a  shrinking  woman  —  not  because 
the  act  was  unsinful  in  His  eyes,  but  because 
He  looked  behind  the  act  to  her  shame,  the 
overpowering  affection  that  had  carried  her 
off  her  feet;  because  any  mere  act  to  Him 
was  of  secondary  importance  to  the  spirit,  the 
thought  behind  it.     "Ye  have  heard  it  said. 


THE     KINGDOM     OF     HEAVEN        129 

do  not  commit  adultery,"  He  told  them  once, 
"but  I  say  to  you  that  the  mere  act  is  noth- 
ing; any  man  who  has  looked  upon  a  woman 
in  lust  hath  committed  adultery  already  in 
his  heart."  "Moses  said,  thou  shalt  not 
kill,  but  I  say  unto  you  that  any  man  who  is 
angry  at  his  brother,  is  guilty  of  murder  in 
his  heart;  and  he  that  says  to  his  brother  in 
hatred,  'Thou  fool'  is  in  danger  of  hell  fire. 
You  have  been  commanded  not  to  steal,  and 
you  think  it  is  enough  if  you  refrain  from 
actual  theft;  but  I  tell  you  that  any  man 
who  even  looks  covetously  on  another  man's 
goods  is  already  a  thief."  "  As  a  man  thinketh 
in  his  heart,  so  he  is."  God  is  a  spirit:  He 
must  be  worshiped  not  by  prescribed  acts  or 
forms,  not  by  doing  this  or  refraining  from 
that,  but  in  spirit,  in  the  ideal  and  purpose 
that  actuate  the  life. 

How  immediately  all  the  so-called  problems 
of  moral  conduct  fade  out  in  the  light  of  that 
simple  teaching. 

Would  Jesus  go  to  church  today?  Un- 
doubtedly; because  the  Church,  in  spite  of 
its  lack  of  vision  and  its  shortcomings,  stands 


130         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

for  the  best  in  the  hfe  of  the  community  and 
is  therefore  worthy  of  help.  But  He  would 
make  it  clear  that  He  went  to  church  because 
He  loved  His  Father  —  not  that  He  loved 
His  Father  because  He  went  to  church;  that 
the  Church  is  not  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
but  only  a  little  section  of  it.  He  would  go 
to  church  because  He  would  believe  that  the 
Church  is  capable  of  great  service  to  the  men 
and  women  of  the  day.  But  should  it  ever 
become,  what  the  church  in  His  day  had 
become,  a  fossilized  institution,  preying  upon 
its  members,  maintaining  a  ritual  instead  of 
serving  the  race,  the  mere  fact  that  it  is  labeled 
"church"  and  that  it  says  "Lord,  Lord" 
would  not  hold  Him  in  it.  He  would  arraign 
it  for  the  betrayal  of  its  trust  as  scathingly  as 
ever  He  condemned  the  priests  and  scribes 
of  Jerusalem. 

Would  he  play  ball  on  Sunday.'^  He  walked 
always  on  the  Sabbath.  If  Sunday  ball  lifts 
men  out  of  the  close  air  of  crowded  homes,  and 
the  bad  environment  of  saloons  into  a  more 
vigorous  health :  if  it  makes  it  easier  for  them 
to    live    happily    and    wholesomely,    and    to 


THE     KINGDOM     OF     HEAVEN        131 

believe  that  there  is  a  God  who  cares  for  them 
and  wants  them  to  be  happy,  it  seems  alto- 
gether possible  to  conceive  Him  at  a  Sunday 
ball  game.  Would  he  drink  wine?  He  did,  un- 
doubtedly; but  it  is  equally  certain  that  with 
the  bitter  record  of  the  saloon's  extortion  and 
destruction,  He  would  today  not  merely  re- 
frain from  drink  but  would  fling  Himself 
unsparingly  into  the  crusade  that  would  end 
this  fearful  curse  forever.  Would  he  tithe 
His  income?  Would  He  run  a  union  shop? 
Would  He  favor  votes  for  women?  Would 
He  do  this  and  that  and  the  other  thing? 

Ask  Him  these  questions,  and  He  would 
doubtless  reply, 

"Ye  know  the  commandments.  Seek  ye 
first  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Do  these 
things  hasten  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  or 
retard  it?  Do  they  make  life  easier  and 
happier  and  more  joyous  for  the  children  of 
God,  or  harder  and  more  miserable?  Do  they 
lift  men's  eyes  up,  stir  their  ambitions,  raise 
their  hopes,  and  make  them  conscious  of  their 
eternally  precious  heritage  as  heirs  of  God,  or 
is  their  effect  destructive  to  the  best  that  is 


132         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

in  men?  Love  your  God  and  your  neighbor, 
and  all  of  these  problems  will  answer  them- 
selves." 

Above  all,  He  would  be  joyous  if  He  were 
here  on  earth  again.  That  much  is  certain. 
He  would  not  cease  to  preach  the  glad  news 
that  "God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead  but  of 
the  living"  and  that  they  who  are  most  keenly 
alive  are  they  who  share  most  fully  in  His 
divinity.  There  is  no  key  to  which  the  doors 
of  Heaven  swing  open  more  readily  than  the 
music  of  a  hearty  laugh.  The  truth  that  He 
came  to  declare  imposes  no  wearying  burdens : 
He  came  to  "set  men  free."  His  yoke  is 
easy  —  the  simple  expression  of  one's  best 
self  in  love  to  God  and  to  the  men  and  women 
and  children  in  the  world,  every  one  of  whom 
is  equally  a  child  of  God.  He  who  glories  in 
the  sunshine,  whose  heart  is  lifted  at  every 
manifestation  of  beauty  —  whether  in  trees 
or  flowers,  or  a  river's  sparkle,  or  a  cathe- 
dral's arch  —  praises  God.  He  who  is  never 
too  busy  to  do  a  kind  thing  to  the  man  or 
woman  nearest,  who  does  it  not  because  it  is 
commanded  or  from  any  sense  of  duty,  but 


THE     KINGDOM     OF     HEAVEN       133 

because  it  is  the  spontaneous  expression  of  a 
life  filled  full  with  love,  is  a  brother  of  the 
Young  Man  of  Galilee  —  a  Christian.  For 
in  the  stead  of  six  hundred  laws  and  precepts 
He  gave  His  own  two-sentence  gospel: 

"Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness,"  and  "Inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 

This  is  the  whole  law  and  the  prophets. 


X 

THE  MAN  WHO  COULD  HAVE  BEEN 
KING 

BECAUSE  what  He  ivas  is  so  vastly  more 
important  than  what  He  did,  we  have 
somewhat  disregarded  the  chronology 
of  the  life  of  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee.  His 
strength,  His  courage,  His  warm  social  nature. 
His  insurgency,  His  mastery  over  men  and 
His  leadership  as  expressed  in  a  construc- 
tive social  and  religious  program  —  all  these 
elements  in  His  character  have  been  so  long 
omitted  or  pressed  into  the  background  that 
it  is  proper  for  us  to  have  thrown  them  into 
the  forefront  of  our  portrait.  Yet  the  chro- 
nology is  important;  it  too  has  been  neglected. 
Men  have  been  taught  to  think  of  His  life  as 
though  it  had  no  well-defined  stages  of  prog- 
ress, as  though  He  had  made  no  mental 
growth  during  the  three  years  of  His  public 


COULD     HAVE     BEEN     KING      135 

work,  but  had  started  with  the  purpose  of 
proclaiming  certain  ideas,  and  had  died  with- 
out modifying  those  ideas  in  any  way  nor 
adding  to  them.  As  though,  indeed,  His  hfe 
was  no  real  life  at  all,  but  a  bit  of  stage-play 
in  which  He  had  seen  the  end  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  had  proceeded  to  it  wearily,  thank- 
ful that  it  was  to  be  delayed  only  three  years. 
Against  the  bitter  injustice  to  the  Young 
Man  of  such  a  view  as  this  all  young  men 
who  really  admire  Him  must  make  contin- 
uous protest. 

We  have  seen  Him  launch  His  career  upon 
the  attention  of  the  world  by  His  spectacular 
cleansing  of  the  Temple.  He  had  probably 
had  no  plan  for  any  such  virile  outburst  when 
He  first  turned  His  feet  away  from  Gahlee 
toward  Jerusalem.  But  the  bitter  complaint 
of  the  poor  had  dinned  itself  into  His  ears 
and  heart  on  that  long  journey  until  He  knew 
that  He  must  strike  a  blow  at  the  very  center 
of  the  system  that  oppressed  them.  It  was 
the  same  call  to  which  the  idealism  of  every 
other  youthful  reformer  has  responded  since 
the   world   began;    the  bitter   outcry   under 


136         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

which   Emerson   represents   God  Himself  as 
smarting : 

God  said,  I  am  tired  of  kings, 
I  suffer  them  no  more, 
Up  to  my  ear  the  morning  brings 
The  outrage  of  the  poor. 

The  echoes  of  the  deed  done  that  April  day 
in  the  Temple  were  carried  to  the  ends  of  the 
known  world  by  the  mass  of  pilgrims  returning 
from  Jerusalem.  In  any  village  large  enough 
to  have  sent  a  single  representative  to  the 
feast,  the  story  was  told  before  the  end  of 
another  month.  Almost  instantly,  therefore, 
the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  became  a  figure  of 
world-wide  reputation ;  those  who  represented 
the  system  against  which  His  message  must 
prevail  were  cowed  and  silenced  by  the  tre- 
mendous storm  of  popular  approval  which 
His  act  had  created;  the  wildest  dreams  of 
His  youth  appeared  certain  of  realization. 
He  was  started  upon  a  public  career  which 
seemed  assured  of  the  greatest  possible  success. 

The  week  which  He  spent  in  Jerusalem  was 
a  triumphal  one.  His  appearance  on  the 
streets  gave  the  signal  for  an  outburst  of 


COULD     HAVE     BEEN     KING      137 

enthusiasm;  crowds  gathered  at  the  corners, 
blocking  traffic,  and  cheered  wildly  the  short 
epigrammatic  sentences  with  which  He  spoke 
His  message.  To  complete  the  measure  of 
His  satisfaction  He  opened  the  door  of  His 
lodging  one  dark  night  to  find  Nicodemus,  a 
member  of  the  Sanhedrin,  come  to  visit  Him. 

"Rabbi,"  said  the  great  man  to  the  Young 
Insurgent,  "we  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher 
come  from  God." 

He  seemed  to  speak  not  merely  for  himself 
but  for  the  whole  ruling  class  of  which  he 
was  a  representative.  "We  know"  —  well 
might  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Young  Man  run 
high.  A  month  before  He  had  been  an  un- 
known carpenter-preacher  in  the  despised 
province  of  Galilee.  In  a  single  day  the  com- 
mon people  of  the  nation  had  been  won  over 
to  Him,  almost  in  a  body;  and  now  apparently 
the  rulers  themselves  were  ready  to  follow  in 
their  lead. 

He  left  Jerusalem  and  turned  His  steps 
northward  toward  His  own  Galilee.  It  was  a 
little  province,  and  much  disdained  by  the 
aristocracy  of  Jerusalem  and  Judea,  but  it 


138         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

offered  a  very  fertile  field  for  the  new  gospel. 
Other  reformers  had  found  it  responsive, 
notably  Judas,  who  in  the  first  years  of  the 
Young  Man  of  Galilee  had  formed  here  his 
ill-fated  rebellion  against  the  Romans.  On 
the  way  He  passed  through  the  borders  of 
Samaria,  and  to  His  great  satisfaction  dis- 
covered that  even  this  comparatively  foreign 
population  had  heard  of  His  achievement  in 
Jerusalem  and  were  eager  to  have  Him  remain. 
For  two  days  He  stayed,  and  then  pressed  on; 
but  even  before  He  reached  the  borders  of 
Galilee  messengers  came  to  tell  Him  the  public 
announcement  which  John  had  made  concern- 
ing Him  —  John  the  Baptist,  who,  until  then, 
had  been  the  foremost  insurgent  orator,  and 
one  of  the  great  public  figures  of  the  nation. 

"He  is  the  Christ,  the  promised  one!"  John 
had  said;  *'my  joy  is  now  fulfilled.  He  must 
increase  and  I  shall  decrease." 

Apparently  there  was  not  a  cloud  in  His 
sky;  the  vision  which  He  had  of  restoring  a 
new  heart  in  His  nation,  re-creating  the  self- 
respect  of  the  people,  abolishing  the  rule  of 
formalism  and  substituting  for  it  a  fresh  con- 


COULD     HAVE     BEEN     KING      139 

ception  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  seemed  to  be  on  its  way 
to  reahzation.  The  year,  or  year  and  a  half, 
that  followed  in  Galilee  was  filled  with  days 
of  increasing  success  and  reputation.  In 
Cana,  where  He  had  performed  His  first  mira- 
cle a  few  months  before,  a  nobleman  from  the 
neighboring  city  of  Capernaum  met  Him, 
one  of  the  chief  men  of  that  important  center. 
"Master,  I  beseech  you  to  save  my  son," 
pleaded  the  ruler;  and  when  the  news  spread 
through  Capernaum  a  few  hours  later  that 
the  son  had  been  restored  to  health  by  the 
mere  word  of  the  Young  Man,  hundreds 
hurried  across  to  Cana  to  see  Him.  His  days 
were  filled  with  preaching  and  with  healing: 
almost  every  night  a  dinner  was  given  for  Him 
in  one  of  the  finer  houses;  on  the  visit  to 
Capernaum  itself,  which  was  made  a  little 
later,  the  crowds  were  so  great  that  He  had 
difficulty  in  making  His  way  into  the  house. 
Sick  people  were  carried  to  Him  from  miles 
around,  and  particularly  those  "possessed  of 
devils,"  a  curious  mental  affliction  of  the  time 
which  yielded  with  special  readiness  to  the 


140         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

magnificent  normality  and  optimism  of  the 
Young  Man's  presence.  Any  constitution 
except  a  very  rugged  one  would  have  given 
away  under  the  strain  of  days  so  full  of 
activities  as  these,  but  the  Young  Man  woke 
every  morning  thoroughly  refreshed,  and 
leaped  joyously  into  the  problems  and  con- 
quests of  the  new  day. 

His  success  was  not  unobserved  by  the  little 
group  of  reactionaries  in  Jerusalem  who  had 
been  so  incensed  at  His  first  cleansing  of  the 
Temple.  They  sent  their  spies  and  informers 
into  the  North  country  to  report  His  every 
action,  and  to  do  what  they  could  to  turn  the 
people  away.  The  Young  Man  was  conscious 
of  the  presence  of  these  unfriendly  ones  in 
His  audiences  but  He  was  too  happy  to  care. 
What  did  it  matter,  anyway  .^^  The  Jerusalem 
hierarchy  would  never  dare  to  seize  Him  in 
Galilee:  when  such  a  crowd  of  almost  wor- 
shiping followers  were  about  Him  even  the 
Romans  might  well  have  hesitated  to  interfere. 
His  fame  was  spreading  faster  and  farther 
than  the  power  of  the  Jerusalem  clique  could 
ever  reach :  for  every  convert  whom  they  lured 


COULD     HAVE     BEEN     KING      141 

away  He  was  adding  a  hundred.  The  king- 
dom of  heaven  was  at  hand:  He  proclaimed 
the  fact  joyfully,  and  at  every  repetition  of  it 
the  multitude  burst  into  renewed  shouts  of 
enthusiasm. 

They  were  perhaps  the  most  gladsome  days 
that  any  preacher  or  reformer  on  this  earth 
has  ever  experienced.  The  warm  sun  which 
makes  Galilee  a  garden  of  delight  seemed  to  be 
outdoing  itself  in  an  effort  to  contribute  to  the 
general  rejoicing.  To  hear  the  Young  Man 
of  Nazareth  became  the  great  pastime  and 
recreation  of  the  province.  The  business  of 
making  a  living  in  such  a  climate  and  among 
such  people  is  not  an  all-day  affair;  whole 
families  could  leave  their  tiny  houses  for  days 
without  great  embarrassment.  So  the  crowds 
about  Him  grew,  until  finally  He  was  com- 
pelled to  withdraw  out  of  the  cities  into  the 
nearby  hills.  The  women  and  children  could 
not  so  easily  follow  Him  there,  but  the  men 
were  not  to  be  thwarted  by  any  journey,  no 
matter  how  difficult.  Even  into  the  hills  a 
great  multitude  flocked  about  Him,  and, 
seating  Himself  on  a  boulder  that  raised  Him 


142         A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

a  little  above  their  heads,  He  spoke  the 
immortal  sentences  of  His  Sermon  on  the 
Mount. 

"Blessed  are  you  poor;  blessed  are  you 
meek.  .  .  .  You  are  the  salt  of  the  earth.  .  .  . 
Ask  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you:  seek  and 
ye  shall  find;  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened 
unto  you.  ...  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know 
how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your  children,  how 
much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven  give  good  gifts  to  them  that  ask  him? 
.  .  .  All  things  therefore,  which  ye  would  that 
men  should  do  unto  you  even  so  do  ye  also 
unto  them ;  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  proph- 
ets. .  .  .  Not  every  one  that  sayeth  unto  me 
'Lord,  Lord,'  shall  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  Heaven.  .  .  .  Everyone 
therefore  that  heareth  these  words  of  mine, 
and  doeth  them  shall  be  like  a  man  that  built 
his  house  upon  a  rock,  and  it  stood  against  all 
storms  and  winds.  But  he  that  heareth  these 
words  and  doeth  them  not  shall  be  like  a 
foolish  man  that  built  his  house  upon  the 
shifting  sands,  and  when   the   storms   came 


COULD     HAVE     BEEN     KING      143 

the  house  was  washed  away,  and  great  was 
the  fall  thereof." 

Never  in  all  history  had  there  been  such 
speaking  as  was  heard  on  those  Galilean  hill- 
sides. Day  after  day  the  crowds  flocked  to 
Him,  to  ask  for  the  explanation  of  some  point 
in  the  previous  day's  teaching,  and  to  listen 
eagerly  for  such  new  truth  as  He  would  unfold 
to  them.  Enthusiasm  grew  as  the  whole 
plan  of  His  message  began  to  unfold  itself 
and  men  saw  in  it  a  new  self-respect,  a  release 
from  the  bondage  of  formalism  and  intoler- 
ance. But  what  inspired  even  greater  joy 
than  the  words  themselves  was  the  manner 
in  which  they  were  spoken.  There  was  no 
note  of  apology  for  their  revolutionary  char- 
acter, no  slightest  hesitation,  no  references  to 
authorities  nor  appeals  to  the  law.  The 
Young  Man  spoke  as  one  who  had  come  to 
present  a  message  greater  than  the  law;  He 
told  them  not  boastingly  but  calmly,  quietly, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  that  He  was  the  Son  of 
God,  and  that  they  were  also  sons.  He  gave 
them  His  message  as  one  which  His  Father 
and  theirs  had  revealed  to  Him  for  them  — 


144         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

and  encouraged  them  to  ask  their  Father  for 
anything  they  might  want  in  the  confident 
assurance  that  their  requests  would  be  granted. 

"And  it  came  to  pass  that  when  He  had 
ended  these  words  the  multitudes  were  as- 
tonished at  His  teaching;  for  He  taught 
them  as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as 
the  scribes.  And  when  He  was  coming  down 
from  the  mountain  great  multitudes  followed 
Him." 

Even  greater  days  were  in  store  for  Him. 
From  village  to  village  He  went  joyously, 
dining  sometimes  with  rulers,  sometimes  with 
publicans  and  sinners,  sometimes  with  Phari- 
sees, but  extending  always  the  number  of  His 
devoted  followers,  and  spreading  the  good 
tidings.  As  the  vision  of  His  gospel  grew  in 
His  own  mind  He  saw  that  the  old  ritualism 
must  be  swept  away  before  His  truth  could 
really  possess  and  vitalize  the  spirit  of  the 
nation.  Hence  it  caused  Him  no  embarrass- 
ment when  the  disciples  of  John  came  to 
protest  because  His  own  disciples  did  not 
fast.  "I  have  not  told  them  to  fast,"  He 
responded;    "what  is  the  use  of  pouring  new 


COULD     HAVE     BEEN     KING      145 

wine  into  old  bottles,  of  attempting  to  com- 
press a  great  new  truth  into  an  outworn  form?  " 
His  disciples,  when  they  were  hungry  on  the 
Sabbath,  plucked  ears  of  corn;  and  He,  far 
from  rebuking  them,  defended  them  from  the 
assaults  of  the  legalists,  turning  the  very  law 
and  the  prophets  to  their  aid.  When  He 
healed  a  man  with  a  withered  hand,  one 
Sabbath,  and  the  ruler  of  the  Synagogue  re- 
buked Him,  He  responded  that  the  Sabbath 
was  made  for  man,  and  that  to  do  good  on  it 
—  even  though  the  law  was  transgressed  — 
fulfilled  its  real  purpose.  And  it  terrified 
Him  not  at  all  —  so  sure  was  He  that  He  was 
right  and  that  the  people  were  with  Him  — 
when  it  was  reported  to  Him  that  the  "Phari- 
sees and  the  Herodians  had  taken  council 
together  how  they  might  destroy  Him." 

For  in  spite  of  the  growing  antagonism  of 
the  inner  circle,  who  recognized  the  menace  of 
His  message  to  their  special  privileges.  His 
popular  following  grew  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
One  day  after  a  series  of  miracles  of  healing, 
which  had  left  Him  and  His  disciples  not  even 
time  to  eat,  He  took  a  boat  and,  setting  sail 


146         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

on  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  landed  in  a  desert  place, 
where  He  planned  to  spend  the  night.  To 
His  surprise  as  He  stepped  ashore  He  dis- 
covered that  the  place,  instead  of  being 
deserted,  as  He  had  supposed  it  would  be, 
was  already  filled  with  the  crowd  of  those  that 
had  been  with  Him  all  the  morning.  They 
were  not  to  be  thrown  off:  they  would  follow 
Him  even  though  it  took  them  far  from  home; 
even  though  there  was  every  prospect  that 
they  would  have  to  spend  the  night  out  of 
doors,  with  nothing  to  eat  either  that  evening 
or  the  next  morning.  And  when  He  saw 
them,  He  "had  compassion  on  them."  They 
remained  with  Him  all  day  long,  and  in  the 
afternoon  His  disciples  came  to  Him,  wearied 
almost  to  the  point  of  petulance,  and  asked 
Him  to  send  them  away. 

"But  they  have  come  a  long  journey  and 
been  with  us  all  day  without  food,"  He  replied. 
"We  will  feed  them  before  they  go." 

The  disciples  looked  at  Him  with  that 
expression  of  dumb  surprise  which  they  were 
never  able  to  conquer  even  to  the  end  of  His 
life. 


COULD     HAVE     BEEN     KING      147 

"Feed  them  —  on  what?  We  have  no 
money  and  if  we  had  there  are  more  than 
five  thousand  of  them,  to  be  fed." 

The  Young  Man,  apparently,  did  not  hear 
them.  *'Go  out  into  the  crowd,"  He  said. 
"Have  them  sit  down;  and  gather  up  what- 
ever food  they  have  and   bring  it  to  me." 

Doubtingly,  but  too  well  trained  by  their 
previous  experiences  with  Him  to  disobey, 
the  disciples  followed  His  instructions,  bring- 
ing back  to  Him  the  meager  supply  of  food 
that  the  more  prudent  members  of  the  crowd 
had  provided.  Laying  it  out  before  Him, 
and  lifting  His  eyes  to  heaven.  He  blessed  it, 
and  ordered  it  distributed  among  the  multi- 
tude. And  they  all  ate,  every  one  of  the  five 
thousand,  and  were  satisfied. 

It  was  the  moment  for  which  they  had  been 
waiting;  the  last  sign  that  completed  their 
assurance  of  His  Messiahship.  Moses  had 
fed  their  fathers  upon  manna  in  the  wilder- 
ness; here  was  one,  who,  in  another  desert 
place,  spoke  the  blessing  of  heaven  upon  an 
apparently  inadequate  food  supply  and  so 
divided  it  that  all  of  them  were  fed.     Surely 


148         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

He  was  the  Messiah,  the  Christ,  who  would 
arm  them  against  the  Romans,  and  leading 
them  in  triumph  to  Jerusalem,  reestablish 
the  throne  of  David.  With  hurrahs  and 
hosannas  they  shouted  the  news  back  and 
forth  to  each  other.  The  day  of  deliverance 
of  the  Jews  had  come  at  last;  the  Son  of 
David  was  with  them;  they  would  take  Him 
and  make  Him  their  king.  He  had  ordered 
His  disciples  to  seat  them  in  fifties  and  in 
hundreds  so  that  the  food  might  more  easily 
be  passed  among  them:  now  these  little 
groups  started  to  their  feet  and  found  them- 
selves organized  almost  as  though  by  magic 
into  companies.  They  were  an  army  and 
they  had  not  realized  it:  right  there,  as  they 
stood,  they  were  enough  to  outnumber  the 
Roman  garrison  in  Jerusalem;  and  they  were 
only  a  fraction  of  the  hosts  who  would  rally 
to  the  standard  as  they  marched  through 
Galilee  and  on  through  Judea.  A  half  dozen 
of  their  leaders  started  forward  to  the  place 
where  the  Young  Man  had  been,  with  the 
offer  of  their  allegiance,  and  then  — 

He  had  foreseen  their  purpose,  and  while 


COULD     HAVE     BEEN     KING      149 

they  had  been  shouting  back  and  forth  to 
each  other,  perfecting  their  own  arrangements, 
doubt  had  raged  through  His  mind  with  the 
force  of  a  tempest.  Here  was  His  oppor- 
tunity; should  He  seize  it?  The  five  thou- 
sand organized  before  Him  would  swell  to 
fifty  thousand,  perhaps  a  hundred  thousand, 
should  He  but  give  the  word.  Once  let  it 
be  known  that  He  had  put  Himself  at  the 
head  of  an  insurgent  army,  and  the  whole 
nation  would  flame  with  revolt.  He  would 
go  up  to  Jerusalem  with  hosts  that  would 
simply  overwhelm  any  army  which  the 
Romans  could  possibly  marshal.  Should 
the  city  close  its  gates  against  Him,  the  Jews 
inside,  bitter  as  many  of  them  were,  would 
forget  their  enmity  in  their  greater  bitterness 
against  the  Romans,  and  open  them  to  Him. 
In  a  month  He  would  be  sitting  upon  the 
throne  of  David,  King  of  the  Jews,  with  an 
army  ready  at  His  hand  to  defend  the  title. 

It  was  an  appealing  picture.  He  would 
have  to  surrender  the  vision  which  His  youth- 
ful idealism  had  created,  to  be  sure  —  the 
vision  of  a  people  spiritually  revived  and  fit 


150         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

to  assume  the  spiritual  leadership  of  the  world. 
And  yet  after  all  He  might  not  have  to  surrender : 
Solomon  had  been  a  king  and  at  the  same  time  a 
prophet:  David  had  written  his  Psalms  even 
while  he  ruled  the  people;  might  not  He,  too  — 
It  was  as  splendid  a  picture  as  ever  stirred 
the  ambition  of  a  strong  man  with  the  full 
pulse  of  youth  athrob  within  him.  For  only  an 
instant  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  allowed  His 
eyes  to  rest  on  it.  Then  He  saw  the  other 
picture  —  the  great  mass  of  men  and  women, 
His  brothers  and  sisters,  not  merely  in  Pales- 
tine but  throughout  the  known  world,  as 
blind  led  by  the  blind;  oppressed,  their  self- 
respect  destroyed,  their  souls  squeezed  dry 
of  hope  and  faith  and  love  by  the  hard  ma- 
chinery of  formalism  and  intolerance.  He 
saw  generations  born  and  die  and  new  genera- 
tions take  their  places,  all  slaves  to  the  same 
spiritual  bondage,  a  servitude  which  nothing 
could  end  except  the  truth  He  had  come  to 
declare.  To  put  Himself  at  the  head  of  the 
army  of  fanatical  patriots  would  be  perhaps 
to  risk  His  life  and  His  message  with  it.  But 
worse  than  the  possibility  of  such  a  failure 


COULD     HAVE     BEEN     KING      151 

was  the  probability  of  success.  For  to  be 
King  of  the  Jews  would  mean  a  lifetime  spent 
in  the  defense  of  that  empty  title,  a  lifetime  of 
strife  and  bloodshed  and  intrigue,  a  lifetime 
in  which  His  message  would  never  be  spoken. 
Living,  He  would  give  His  people  only  an 
empty  semblance  of  national  life;  dying. 
He  would  leave  them  to  be  recaptured  by  the 
Roman  power  —  and  the  truth  which  he 
had  come  to  declare,  the  truth  that  was  ca- 
pable of  continuing  its  work  of  emancipation 
throughout  the  earth  so  long  as  time  should 
last,  would  be  traded  for  a  glittering  crown 
and  an  empty  name.  He  saw  it  all  in  a  flash, 
as  He  stood  there  looking  out  over  the  eager 
crowds  of  His  followers.  And  even  as  their 
leaders  separated  themselves  from  the  mul- 
titude and  started  toward  Him,  He  issued  a 
few  quiet  orders  to  His  disciples,  and  turning, 
quickly  disappeared. 

"Jesus,  therefore,  perceiving  that  they  were 
about  to  come  and  take  Him  by  force  to  make 
Him  King,  withdrew  again  into  the  mountain 
Himself  alone." 


XI 

"WALKED  WITH  HIM  NO  MORE" 

THE  weak  man  falters  into  a  decision 
only  to  recede  from  it  the  next  mo- 
ment. His  mind  is  continually  at 
war  with  itself;  real  decision,  the  kind  that 
carries  unwaveringly  to  the  end,  is  impos- 
sible. There  was  nothing  of  that  deficiency 
in  the  character  of  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee. 
What  struggle  He  may  have  had  in  the  hours 
following  His  withdrawal  from  that  shouting 
multitude  can  only  be  imagined,  but  when  He 
returned  at  length  to  His  followers  there  was 
no  more  evidence  of  struggle.  His  face  had 
new  light.  His  talk  from  that  moment 
sounded  a  new  note.  For  in  those  hours  of 
solitude  He  had  looked  down  the  path  of  His 
future  to  see  Death  staring  back  at  Him  from 
the  other  end.  He  knew  at  last  that  He 
should  fail,  that  the  forces  which  had  proved 
too  strong  for  John  would  ultimately  compass 


WALKED     WITH     HIM     NO     MORE      153 

His  destruction  also.  Out  of  the  wilderness 
He  stepped  as  one  on  whom  the  sentence  of 
the  cross  had  already  been  pronounced. 

Men  receive  that  sentence  in  different  ways 
according  to  the  measure  and  the  material  of 
their  manhood.  Some  are  crushed  utterly; 
some  plunge  into  dissipation,  determined  to 
forget;  and  some  draw  back  from  the  world 
into  prayer  and  fasting.  The  Young  Man  of 
Galilee  did  none  of  these;  in  all  its  outward 
manifestations  the  course  of  His  life  remained 
unchanged.  They  continued  to  invite  Him 
to  their  dinners  and  He  was,  as  ever,  the  center 
of  all  interest;  they  brought  the  sick  to  Him 
and  He  healed  them;  His  days  were  as  busy 
as  ever,  and  apparently  as  happy.  Indeed 
when  it  seemed  to  Him  that  He  could  no  longer 
withhold  the  secret  from  His  disciples,  lest 
the  end  should  come  even  more  suddenly 
than  He  thought,  and  leave  them  entirely 
unprepared,  they  could  not  think  that  He  was 
serious.  He  be  executed  —  the  thought  was 
incredible.  Why,  He  was  the  hope  of  the 
nation,  it  was  He  who  should  restore  the 
throne  to  Jerusalem.     They  were  sure  of  it. 


154    A  YOUNG  man's  JESUS 

these  disciples  of  His;  the  idea  that  all  His 
immense  following  could  be  dispersed,  that 
He  Himself  could  be  taken  into  custody  by 
the  Temple  clique,  which  now  stood  so  mani- 
festly in  fear  of  Him,  was  too  absurd  to  be 
entertained  for  a  moment. 

"From  that  time  began  Jesus  to  shew  unto 
His  disciples  that  He  must  go  into  Jerusalem, 
and  suffer  many  things  of  the  elders  and 
chief  priests  and  scribes,  and  be  killed.  .  .  . 
And  Peter  took  Him  and  began  to  rebuke 
Him,  saying.  Be  it  far  from  thee.  Lord;  this 
shall  never  be  unto  thee." 

But  He  was  wiser  than  they.  The  year 
that  followed  that  splendid  but  abortive 
attempt  to  make  Him  king  was  far  different 
from  the  two  years  of  happy  triumph  that  had 
preceded  it.  In  it.  He  passed  through  the 
trial  that  is  the  severest  test  of  greatness; 
He  saw  His  following  crumble  away.  His 
popularity  fade,  cheers  turn  into  curses 
and  reverence  into  hate;  yet  His  faith  was 
unshadowed,  His  spirit  unsoured. 

It  must  have  been  a  dramatic  moment  when 
He  returned  from  His  solitude  to  face  the  great 


WALKED     WITH     HIM    NO     MORE       155 

company  whom  He  had  fed  upon  the  moun- 
tain side.  They  were  still  hoarse  with  ho- 
sannas,  still  ready  to  crown  Him  if  He  would. 
One  can  imagine  the  startled  dismay  which 
His  first  words  cast  among  them.  "I  am  not 
come  to  restore  the  kingdom  to  Jerusalem," 
He  said;  "mine  is  a  spiritual  mission.  I  am 
the  bread  of  life.  You  have  been  following  me 
because  I  fed  you  in  the  wilderness,  but  I  tell 
you  what  I  have  come  to  offer  you  is  myself, 
that  by  knowing  me  you  may  know  your 
Father."  It  was  too  much  for  them.  They 
had  flocked  about  Him  because  they  had  seen 
Him  heal  the  sick,  because  He  had  denounced 
the  oppressors  who  made  their  lives  unbear- 
able. He  was  to  be  their  hope  of  emancipa- 
tion, their  leader  against  the  defilers  of  the 
Temple;  what  did  He  mean  by  this  senseless 
mysticism  .f^ 

"The  Jews  therefore  murmured  concerning 
Him,  because  He  said,  I  am  the  bread  that 
came  down  out  of  heaven.  And  they  said, 
Is  not  this  Jesus,  the  Son  of  Joseph,  whose 
father  and  mother  we  know;  how  doth 'He 
now  say,  I  am  come  down  out  of  heaven?" 


156         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

What  nonsense!  Gentiles  might  continue  to 
follow  such  a  man,  but  His  company  was 
clearly  no  place  for  a  self-respecting  Jew. 

Yet  a  somewhat  diminished  group  continued 
with  Him  through  the  week  and  on  the  Sab- 
bath crowded  the  synagogue,  where  it  was 
known  that  He  would  be,  but  there  was  no 
comfort  for  them  in  what  He  spoke  there. 
It  was  a  repetition  merely  of  the  seemingly 
senseless  talk  about  the  "bread  of  life."  What 
had  happened?  Why  had  He  played  with 
them  thus?  What  was  it  that  had  so  sud- 
denly destroyed  His  senses?  Sorrowfully  they 
acknowledged  themselves  baffled,  and  their 
last  hope  for  Israel  destroyed.  "These  are 
hard  sayings,"  they  said;  "who  can  under- 
stand them?" 

"Upon  this  many  of  His  disciples  went 
back  and  walked  with  Him  no  more." 

"Will  you  also  go  away?"  He  asked  the 
little  group  of  twelve  whom  He  had  taken 
from  their  fishing  and  made  famous  through- 
out all  Galilee  by  His  friendship.  And  they 
answered,  "Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?  Thou 
hast  the  words  of  eternal  hfe."     It  was  the 


WALKED     WITH     HIM    NO     MORE      157 

one  gleam  of  light  in  the  darkness  of  His 
desertion. 

The  pleasant  coasts  of  Galilee  which  had 
been  the  scene  of  His  triumphs  became  now 
unbearable  to  Him.  They  were  too  full 
of  associations,  too  teeming  with  memories 
that  in  these  hours  returned  to  plague  Him. 
For  the  only  time  in  His  public  work  He  left 
Palestine,  and  led  His  wondering  but  still 
dutiful  disciples  into  the  foreign  cities  of 
Tyre  and  Sidon.  We  have  followed  Him 
there  in  a  previous  chapter. 

This  little  journey  through  those  foreign 
coasts  was  indeed  something  of  a  repetition 
of  His  earlier  triumphs.  These  people  were 
not  Jews ;  they  had  no  hope  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  throne  in  Jerusalem  and  their  in- 
terest in  Him  was  untinctured  by  any  thought 
that  in  His  triumph  they  might  find  individual 
place  or  profit.  They  sought  Him  only  be- 
cause His  words  thrilled  them,  because  they 
felt  their  better  selves  touched  and  made 
vibrant  by  the  wonder  of  His  life. 

When  at  length  the  time  came  to  turn  His 
steps  back  to  Gahlee  He  experienced  a  feeling 


158         A     YOUNG     MAN*S     JESUS 

of  sorrowful  reluctance.  Every  road,  every 
street  corner,  almost  every  house  and  tree, 
were  alive  with  memories  of  His  success. 
To  tread  those  paths  again,  knowing  that  it 
might  be  the  last  time,  that  He  should  leave 
them,  a  failure,  on  His  way  to  death,  must  have 
cut  deep.  In  His  distress.  He  cried  out 
against  the  cities  where  His  mighty  works  had 
been  done  —  Chorazin,  Bethsaida,  and  even 
the  beloved  Capernaum.  He  had  healed  their 
sick,  and  fed  their  hungry,  and  spoken  His 
greatest  words  in  their  streets;  their  crowds 
who  had  waited  outside  His  door  all  night  in 
order  to  catch  the  first  glimpse  of  Him  in  the 
morning  —  it  seemed  as  though  they  at 
least,  might  have  stood  faithful.  "Woe  unto 
you!"  He  cried  to  them  out  of  His  lonehness, 
"for  if  the  mighty  works  which  were  done  in 
you  had  been  done  in  Sodom  and  Gemorrah, 
they  would  have  repented  long  ago,  sitting  in 
sack-cloth  and  ashes." 

For  a  few  weeks  of  that  last  summer  He 
staid  quietly  in  Galilee,  part  of  the  time  in  the 
cool  of  the  woods  wherein  He  could  be  alone 
with  His  disciples.     But  when  autumn  came 


WALKED     WITH     HIM     NO     MORE      159 

He  determined  to  visit  Jerusalem  again, 
and  attend  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  It  was 
an  almost  foolhardy  resolve.  The  report  of 
His  dwindling  following  had  been  carried 
eagerly  to  the  Temple  clique,  whose  members 
were  emboldened  by  the  news.  There  were 
spies  in  every  company  that  listened  to  Him; 
the  echo  of  His  smallest  act  flew  to  the  capital; 
He  could  not  hope  to  arrive  inside  the  walls 
without  imminent  danger  of  arrest.  All  this 
He  knew,  but  it  did  not  weigh  against  His 
resolve.  This  might  be  His  last  feast.  There 
would  be  visitors  from  all  over  the  world, 
some  perhaps  who  in  future  days  might  help 
to  spread  the  message.  He  must  be  true 
to  His  mission,  at  whatever  cost.  Thus  He 
went.  We  catch  one  fleeting  glance  of  Him 
standing  on  the  Temple  steps,  a  snarling 
crowd  of  Jews  about  Him.  Into  their  very 
faces  He  hurls  His  defiance,  yet  there  is  a 
mighty  wistfulness  in  His  tones,  as  of  one 
who  has  loved  deeply  and  has  had  His  love 
scornfully  rejected.  "I  have  come  to  give 
you  the  truth,"  He  says,  "the  truth  that  will 
make  you  free."     Indignantly  they  cry  out. 


160    A  YOUNG  man's  JESUS 

"We  are  Abraham's  children  and  have  never 
been  in  bondage  to  any  man." 

"If  you  were  Abraham's  children,"  He  cries, 
His  voice  rising  full-toned  above  the  clamor, 
"you  would  hear  me,  for  Abraham  knew  the 
spiritual  freedom  that  I  am  come  to  proclaim, 
and  lived  in  it.  But  you  are  not  his  children, 
you  are  children  of  the  devil." 

Imagine  the  scene  —  the  crowd  surging 
about  the  steps,  already  determined  upon 
His  destruction,  the  Young  Man  towering 
majestically  above  them.  Infuriated,  they 
took  up  stones  to  cast  at  Him,  but  even 
while  their  hands  were  drawn  back  they 
looked  upon  Him,  and  feeling  anew  the 
mystery  of  His  personality,  the  divine  per- 
fection of  His  life,  dropped  their  stones  to 
the  ground.  A  moment  longer  He  gazed 
sorrowfully  out  over  them.  His  own  people 
whom  He  had  loved  and  lost,  and  then  strid- 
ing calmly  through  their  parted  ranks,  made 
His  way  out  of  the  city  and  so  back  to  Galilee. 

Much  has  been  made  of  the  forty  days' 
temptation  which  He  underwent  in  the  wilder- 
ness in  the  first  months  of  His  ministry  —  too 


WALKED     WITH     HIM     NO     MORE       161 

much.  And  almost  no  one  has  remembered 
the  long  year  of  harsher  trial  between  the  day 
when  they  offered  Him  the  crown  and  that 
other  day  when  they  nailed  Him  to  the  cross. 
Yet  every  single  hour  of  that  year  had  its 
terrible  temptation.  There  was  the  tempta- 
tion to  drop  out  of  sight,  to  retire  and  so 
avoid  the  bitterness  of  death;  there  was  the 
temptation  to  placate  the  Pharisees  by  some 
easy  sophistry  that  would  swing  His  followers 
back  into  their  ranks;  and  there  was  still  the 
temptation,  renewed  every  day  by  His  own 
disciples,  to  abandon  the  spiritual  emphasis 
of  His  message  and  let  them  make  Him  king. 
Did  He  retire?  See  Him  as  He  twice  goes 
openly  to  Jerusalem,  and  each  time  so  infu- 
riates the  Jews  with  the  sting  of  His  truth  that 
they  would  stone  Him.  Did  He  seek  com- 
promise? To  this  year  belongs  the  parable 
of  the  Pharisee  who  made  ostentatious  prayer, 
and  the  poor  publican  who  said  only,  *'Lord 
have  mercy  on  me,  a  sinner,"  whose  prayer 
availed  while  the  prayer  of  the  other  was 
branded  an  offense  to  heaven.  All  Jerusalem 
must  have  laughed  its  appreciation  of  that 


162         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

comparison  and  retold  the  story  in  the  streets 
and  meeting-places.  It  was  in  this  last 
danger-fraught  year,  also,  that  He  termed 
them  *' vipers,"  "children  of  hell,"  "hypo- 
crites," *' consumers  of  widows'  houses"  — 
these  proud  Pharisees  who  had  the  power  to 
kill  Him  and  were  at  the  very  time  plotting 
how  it  could  be  done. 

Did  the  kingship  tempt  Him  from  His 
mission?  Studied  in  the  light  of  its  last 
chapter  the  whole  story  of  the  year  shows 
Him  eager  only  to  perfect  His  little  following, 
that  the  message  might  go  on.  Indeed  from 
them,  ploddingly  loyal  as  they  were,  and  not 
from  His  enemies,  came  the  haunting  dread 
that  harassed  Him  through  the  year.  Sup- 
pose they  should  prove  incapable  of  grasping 
His  real  message,  even  to  the  end.  What 
confidence  could  He  feel  in  them,  who  after 
almost  three  years  of  intimate  association 
still  understood  Him  so  little  as  to  dispute 
who  should  be  prime  minister  in  His  kingdom  .^^ 
Had  He  been  wise,  after  all,  in  staking  every- 
thing upon  intelligences  so  painfully  cir- 
cumscribed.'^    What  if  they  were  to  fail  Him? 


WALKED     WITH     HIM    NO    MORE      163 

Spring  came,  and  He  turned  His  back  on 
Galilee  forever.  The  departure  meant  little 
to  the  disciples;  a  dozen  times  they  had  left 
Galilee  with  Him  to  attend  various  feasts  at 
Jerusalem.  To  their  blunted  perceptions  this 
departure  was  no  different  from  any  of  the  rest 
—  they  record  their  recollection  of  it  in  two 
sentences.  It  meant  nothing  to  them.  But 
to  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  it  was  every- 
thing. Once  more  He  looked  about  Him 
on  the  familiar  spots  of  His  triumphus,  the 
synagogues  that  had  been  crowded  to  hear 
Him,  the  streets  where  multitudes  had  almost 
trampled  upon  each  other,  the  houses  in  which 
lived  men  and  women  whom  He  had  healed. 
It  was  a  heartrending  farewell.  Weakness 
would  have  spilled  itself  out  in  bitter  com- 
plaint. The  Young  Man  of  Galilee  gave  no 
sign.  His  soul  was  bleeding,  but  even  they 
who  shared  His  closest  companionship  had  no 
suspicion  of  it. 

Just  for  the  moment  there  seemed  a  revival 
of  interest  in  Him.  The  crowds  flocked  back 
again  in  the  old  triumphant  way,  and  the 
disciples  noted  their  presence  joyously.     "The 


164         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

multitudes  come  together  unto  Him  again," 
they  exclaimed  gladly,  and  out  of  their 
bubbling  hope  they  revived  their  vision  of  His 
success.  But  dismay  followed  fast  upon  their 
dreams.  Against  their  ardent  protest  He 
carried  them  off,  away  from  the  crowds,  into 
close  retirement.  They  were  restless  there, 
discouraged  at  the  dwindhng  multitudes, 
distressed  at  the  careless  fashion  in  which  He 
alienated  His  supporters.  Was  it  necessary 
to  be  quite  so  harsh  with  the  Pharisees? 
After  all  there  were  many  estimable  gentle- 
men among  them,  who  could  have  contributed 
much  to  His  success.  Why  should  He  have 
ridiculed  them  out  of  His  company?  Why 
tell  the  world  that  with  all  their  attention  to 
religious  rites  their  prayers  were  less  acceptable 
to  God  than  the  prayers  of  a  hated  publican? 
There  were  hundreds  of  earnest  Jews  who  might 
have  followed  Him.  Why  should  He  slight 
their  ready  hospitality  by  turning  aside  into 
the  home  of  Zacchseus,  an  outcast?  With  the 
Pharisees  gone,  the  scribes  and  lawyers  antag- 
onistic, the  rank  and  file  of  the  Jews  offended, 
how  could  He  hope  for  success? 


WALKED     WITH     HIM     NO     MORE       165 

So  they  questioned  among  themselves,  still 
groping  without  vision  of  His  real  message  or 
mission,  while  they  moved  down  slowly  to 
Jerusalem,  to  the  great  feast.  Most  of  them 
had  not  been  with  Him  three  years  before, 
but  to  Him  almost  every  spot  along  the  road- 
side brought  memories  of  that  other  journey 
when  He  had  been  so  young,  so  sanguine  and 
so  certain  of  success.  He  remembered  how 
the  crowd  had  sat  late  around  their  camp-fires 
to  listen  to  Him,  how  they  had  poured  into 
His  ears  the  story  of  their  wrongs  at  the  hands 
of  the  Temple  clique,  how  gloriously  they  had 
shouted  His  praises  when  He  had  scourged 
the  oppressors  before  Him.  Three  years 
had  passed  —  years  of  hard,  consecrated  en- 
deavor —  and  He  was  going  to  Jerusalem 
again.  Three  years  in  which  He  had  hoped 
to  create  a  new  heart  in  the  world  and  renew 
a  right  spirit  within  it.  And  in  those  years 
John  had  been  slain;  the  grafters  had  reen- 
trenched  themselves  in  the  Temple  more 
firmly  than  ever;  the  common  people,  who 
had  "heard  Him  gladly,"  had  grown  tired  of 
waiting  for  His  success;   their  oppressors  now 


166  A   YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

made  no  concealment  of  their  hatred  —  what 
had  the  three  years  profited? 

Just  outside  the  city,  in  the  httle  town  of 
Bethany,  He  stopped  for  supper  at  the  home 
of  Simon,  a  leper  whom  He  had  healed.  As 
the  meal  was  drawing  to  a  close  there  came  a 
woman  through  the  crowd,  and,  making  her 
way  to  where  He  sat,  she  opened  a  cruse  of 
exceedingly  precious  ointment  and  poured 
it  on  His  head.  It  was  an  act  of  reverence 
peculiarly  impressive.  While  the  fragrance 
of  the  ointment  spread  through  the  chamber 
there  was  a  moment  of  reverent  silence.  Then 
suddenly,  jarringly,  came  a  murmured  pro- 
test from  the  end  of  the  table  where  some  of 
the  disciples  sat. 

"To  what  purpose  is  this  waste .'^"  they 
whispered  indignantly.  *'For  this  ointment 
might  have  been  sold  for  much  and  given  to 
the  poor.'* 

The  Young  Man  of  Galilee,  hearing  them, 
looked  around  upon  them  sadly.  It  was 
the  end  of  His  third  year;  tomorrow  He 
would  enter  Jerusalem  to  face  the  malig- 
nant hatred  of  His  enemies:   the  crowds  had 


WALKED     WITH     HIM     NO    MORE      167 

lost  their  faith  in  Him;  the  powerful  among 
His  followers  had  nearly  all  of  them  deserted; 
and  now,  on  the  very  eve  of  His  supreme 
trial,  His  own  disciples,  the  poor  fishermen 
whom  He  had  called  from  their  nets  to 
be  His  confidants  —  even  they  —  murmured 
against  a  simple  act  of  reverence  toward 
Him. 

Surely  He  would  have  been  justified  in 
turning  back  into  retirement  and  safety.  No 
one  could  say  He  had  not  done  His  best: 
why  need  He  throw  away  His  life  for  an 
ignorant  crowd,  and  a  band  of  fickle  disciples 
ever  ready  to  lose  patience?  So  He  might 
have  argued  with  Himself  that  night.  The 
road  runs  straight  through  Bethany  in  either 
direction  —  eastward  back  to  Jericho  and  into 
Galilee's  peaceful  recesses,  where  no  destroying 
enemy  would  follow,  out  of  which  no  endanger- 
ing report  would  be  carried;  and  westward 
toward  the  Jordan  and  Jerusalem,  where  were 
gathered  the  Herodians,  whose  king  He  had 
called  a  fox;  the  Pharisees,  smarting  under  His 
denunciations;  the  lawyers  and  scribes,  jealous 
of  His  prominence  and  hating  His  doctrines; 


168         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

the  grafters  whom  He  had  driven  before  Him; 
and  the  rabble  whose  proffered  kingship  He 
had  so  stubbornly  refused. 

"And  on  the  morrow  He  drew  nigh  unto 
Jerusalem." 


XII 

"WITH  HIM   TWO  ROBBERS** 

AFTER  all  it  is  the  last  week  that  makes 
Him  forever  the  Young  Man's  Jesus. 
An  old  man  would  have  fallen  under 
its  manifold  activities  from  mere  want  of 
physical  strength :  he  would  have  arisen  tired- 
eyed  out  of  restless  nights  and  faced  the 
repeated  challenges  of  the  cleverest  men  in 
Jerusalem  with  a  brain  fogged  and  impotent; 
he  would  have  crumbled  away  completely 
under  the  gruelling  processes  of  that  final 
ordeal.  Not  so  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee. 
The  rich  treasure  of  His  reserve  strength, 
stored  up  through  years  of  outdoor  life  and 
labor  responded  to  every  demand.  Day  by 
day  He  strode  through  those  streets  in  the 
midst  of  His  enemies,  commanding  respect 
by  the  grandeur  of  His  bearing  and  the  subtle 
perfection  of  His  manhood.  Thirty-six  hours 
of  sleepless  trial  at  the  end  of  the  week  left 


170         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

Him  still  fresh  and  powerful :  He  met  the  final 
hours  of  agony  clear-eyed,  with  nerves  that 
never  flinched. 

In  truth  every  feature  of  His  splendid 
manliness  which  has  been  the  subject  of  com- 
ment in  these  pages  shines  out  with  redoubled 
brilliance  in  the  record  of  these  last  few  days. 
It  was  inevitable  that  with  such  a  vibrant 
sympathy  for  the  poor  He  should  let  His 
wrath  blaze  against  the  oppressors  even  in 
the  very  hours  when  they  had  completed 
their  plan  for  His  destruction.  And  so  we 
find  Him  uttering  here,  upon  the  threshold 
of  His  departure,  stronger  strictures  than  had 
yet  passed  His  lips.  "  Woe  be  unto  you  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  hypocrites,  ye  serpents,  ye 
offspring  of  vipers,"  he  repeated  again  and 
again,  knowing  that  every  repetition  raised 
higher  the  flame  of  their  wrath.  The  friend- 
liness, the  love  of  man  that  made  Him  always 
accessible  to  the  individual  in  need,  never 
displayed  itself  so  wonderfully  as  in  that  later 
moment  when  He  turned,  burdened  with  the 
weight  of  His  cross,  to  speak  words  of  comfort 
to  the  sorrowing  women  who  followed  Him. 


WITH     HIM     TWO     ROBBERS      171 

The  social  instinct,  that  had  caused  Him  to 
be  the  most  sought-after  guest  in  every  city 
which  He  visited,  made  it  natural  that  He 
should  take  leave  of  His  friends,  not  at  some 
tearful  fast,  but  around  the  table,  after  a 
final  supper.  And  His  supreme  dignity,  recog- 
nized even  in  His  first  days  out  of  the  car- 
penter shop  by  the  rulers  of  the  nation,  caused 
the  hardened  Roman  governor  to  render  Him 
a  reluctant  word  of  homage  in  the  very  speech 
that  sentenced  Him.  • 

His  disciples  had  never  been  in  higher 
spirits  than  on  the  morning  of  His  entry 
into  the  city.  Time  and  again  He  had  at- 
tempted to  make  clear  to  them  the  nature  and 
probable  outcome  of  this  visit,  but  their  ears 
were  deaf  to  His  warnings.  To  their  eyes.  He 
was  still  the  Son  of  David,  the  promised  King 
of  the  Jews;  the  presentiments  of  death, 
which  He  endeavored  to  communicate  to 
them,  were  regarded  as  mere  vagaries  of  a 
passing  depression.  And  the  nature  of  His 
approach  to  the  gates  seemed  for  the  while 
to  fulfil  their  richest  desire.  The  simple 
Galileans,  who  had  traveled  the  road  to  the 


172         A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

feast,  heard  that  He  too  was  on  the  way  and 
waited  for  Him  outside  the  walls.  As  He 
came  riding  along,  followed  by  His  disciples, 
some  one  among  them  quoted  the  bit  of 
ancient  prophecy: 

"Tell ye  the  daughter  of  Zion, 
Behold  thy  King  cometh  unto  thee 
Meek  and  riding  upon  an  ass. 
And  upon  a  colt  the  foal  of  an  ass." 

The  mere  suggestion  was  like  a  spark  dropped 
upon  their  volatile  spirits:  immediately  the 
cry  was  raised,  "Hosanna  to  the  son  of 
David!  Blessed  is  He  that  cometh  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord!  Hosanna  in  the  highest!" 
From  lip  to  lip  it  spread  until  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  crowd  was  fanned  into  a  flame  of  ex- 
cited demonstration.  Men  tore  palm  leaves 
from  the  trees  and  threw  them  in  the  road  be- 
fore Him,  others  flung  out  their  coats,  women 
tossed  flowers,  and  little  children  waved  their 
arms  as  they  ran  before.  "Hosanna!"  they 
cried,  and  the  encircling  hills  threw  back  the 
shout,   "Hosanna!" 

Joy  thrilled  the  hearts  of  the  disciples.     It 
was  come;    the  outburst  which  they  had  ex- 


WITH     HIM     TWO     ROBBERS      173 

pected  so  long  had  swept  Him  up  and  would 
carry  Him  through  the  gates,  over  the  feeble 
resistance  of  His  enemies  and  into  the  palace. 
Their  own  shouts  were  louder  than  the  cries 
of  the  rabble.  In  all  the  crowd  only  the 
Young  Man  Himself  was  unmoved:  only 
He  knew  how  ephemeral,  how  futile,  was  the 
outburst.  His  eyes  were  trained  upon  the 
future,  and  already  there  sounded  in  His 
ears  that  other  cry,  which  would  four  days 
later  burst  from  lips  like  these  —  the  cry  of 
"Crucify,  Crucify!"  For  the  first  time  in 
His  life  He  was  too  preoccupied  with  His 
own  thoughts  to  be  really  conscious  of  what 
was  going  on  about  Him.  While  the  shouting 
grew  louder  and  the  palm  branches  were 
strewn  thicker  before  Him,  He  pulled  up  His 
little  steed,  and  looking  out  over  the  city, 
the  capital  of  the  nation  that  He  had  hoped 
to  save.  He  wept.  They  were  not  tears  for 
Himself.  Jerusalem,  the  splendid  center  and 
heart  of  the  national  life,  lay  before  Him. 
Three  years  earlier  He  had  set  forth  to  restore 
its  faith  and  make  it  the  spiritual  ruler  of 
the   world.     And   He  had   failed.     Its  days 


174       A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

were  numbered.  Already  He  could  foresee 
the  destruction  that  would  come.  "O  Jeru- 
salem," He  sobbed,  *'if  thou  hadst  known  the 
things  which  belong  unto  peace,  but  now  they 
are  hid  from  thine  eyes.  For  the  days  shall 
come  upon  thee  when  thine  enemies  shall 
compass  thee  round  and  shall  dash  thee  to 
the  ground,  and  they  shall  not  leave  in  thee 
one  stone  upon  another,  because  thou  knewest 
not  the  time  of  thy  visitation."  There  was 
no  weakness  in  those  tears.  Weak  men  sob 
for  themselves:  it  takes  manhood  and  vision 
to  weep  for  a  city. 

But  the  shouting  after  that  was  more 
subdued;  it  did  not  seem  a  kingly  thing  to 
this  fickle  crowd  to  weep  in  the  hour  of  tri- 
umph. They  picked  their  garments  out  of  the 
way,  and  when  the  first  rank  of  them  reached 
the  city  gates,  it  was  not  "Hosanna  to  the 
King!"  that  they  shouted.  To  the  cynical 
questionings  of  the  loiterers  who  came  out 
to  meet  them,  saying  "Who  is  this.^^"  they 
answered  meekly,  "This  is  the  prophet, 
Jesus,  from  Nazareth  of  Gahlee."  They 
hung  their  heads  a  little  as  they  said  it,  and 


WITH     HIM     TWO     ROBBERS      175 

slipped  off  into  the  byway,  leaving  Him  to 
pass  quietly  into  His  lodgings. 

But  there  were  those  in  the  crowd  to  carry 
the  announcement  of  his  arrival  further. 
Within  an  hour,  the  chief  priests  knew  that 
He  was  in  the  city,  and  the  councils  of  the 
Temple  chque  buzzed  with  plans  for  His 
undoing.  "The  whole  world  is  gone  out  after 
Him"  cried  those  who  brought  the  report  of 
His  triumphal  reception,  and  the  shrewdest, 
most  powerful  men  in  Jerusalem  trembled 
at  the  words.  Their  hour  had  come;  they 
must  win  against  Him  now,  or  lose  forever. 
Once  let  the  emotional  crowd  that  thronged 
the  city  raise  the  cry  of  "Hosanna  to  the 
King!"  again,  and  blood  would  flow  in  the 
streets;  they  and  all  the  entrenched  power 
and  privilege,  which  they  represented,  might 
be  swept  away  before  the  onslaught.  The 
crowd  must  be  won  away  from  Him.  It  was 
no  time  for  a  display  of  force  in  the  face  of 
that  excitable  multitude;  they  must  trap 
Him  into  damaging  pubhc  statements  that 
could  be  used  against  Him.  They  must  turn 
His  own  fickle  following  to  His  destruction. 


176         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

So,  group  after  group,  they  flung  themselves 
upon  Him,  the  shrewdest,  most  subtle  leaders 
of  every  faction  in  the  city.  The  chief  priests 
and  scribes,  having  most  cause  to  dread  Him, 
tried  their  skill  first.  They  found  Him  in  the 
Temple  area.  Pushing  through  the  breathless 
crowd  about  Him,  their  bright  robes  gaining 
place  for  them,  they  interrupted  Him  rudely. 

"By  what  authority  doest  thou  these 
things?"  they  demanded.  "Who  gave  thee 
thy  authority.''" 

The  Young  Man  of  Gahlee,  knowing  the 
crafty  hatred  that  prompted  the  question, 
and  the  danger  that  lurked  beneath  it, 
responded : 

"I  will  ask  you  one  question:  answer  me, 
and  I  will  tell  you  by  what  authority  I  do  these 
things.  The  Baptism  of  John,  was  it  from 
heaven  or  from  men.     Answer." 

They  reasoned  with  themselves,  for  they 
were  shrewd  and  not  easily  entrapped.  "If 
we  shall  say  from  heaven,"  they  said,  "He 
will  say.  Why  then  did  ye  not  believe  him? 
But  should  we  say  from  men  —  they  feared 
the  people,  for  all  verily  held  John  to  be  a 


WITH     HIM     TWO     ROBBERS      177 

prophet.  And  they  answered  Jesus  and  said, 
We  know  not.  And  Jesus  saith  unto  them 
neither  tell  I  you  by  what  authority  I  do  these 
things." 

Amazed,  discomfited,  they  fled,  and  after 
them  He  hurled  His  reproaches,  the  crowd 
catching  every  sentence  as  it  dropped  from 
His  lips  and  shouting  their  approval. 

"I  say  to  you  that  the  publicans  and  the 
harlots  go  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  before 
you.  For  John  came  unto  you  in  the  way  of 
righteousness  and  ye  believed  him  not:  but 
the  publicans  and  harlots  believed  him.  .  .  . 
Therefore,  I  say  unto  you  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  shall  be  taken  away  from  you."  Their 
hatred  of  Him  blazed  up  into  sudden  fury. 
They  would  have  slain  Him  on  the  spot,  but 
they  were  afraid  of  the  multitude  about  Him. 

So  the  first  onslaught  upon  Him  ended  in 
the  complete  repulse  of  His  enemies.  Within 
half  an  hour  the  result  had  been  reported  to 
the  Temple  rulers,  and  those  responsible  for 
it  were  heaped  with  reproaches.  Why  had 
they  blundered  so  crudely  in  their  attack; 
why  had  they  gone  at  Him  with  a  plan  so 


178         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

ill  formed,  so  certain  to  react  upon  themselves? 
Did  they  realize  that  they  had  deliberately 
played  into  His  hands?  He  was  stronger 
than  ever  with  the  multitude  because  of  the 
encounter.  Something  must  be  done,  and 
at  once.  In  their  perplexity  the  leaders  of 
the  Herodians,  together  with  certain  shrewd 
Pharisees,  came  to  them  —  for  the  fear  of 
His  popular  following  and  the  destructive 
democracy  of  His  teachings  had  united  all 
parties  —  and  offered  a  plan  admirable  in  its 
simplicity  and  keenness.  They  would  ask 
Him  about  rendering  tribute  to  Caesar,  the 
question  of  fiercest  national  controversy. 
Should  He  say  that  Caesar  was  entitled  to 
tribute  the  crowd  would  cry  out  against  Him; 
should  He  take  the  popular  position  they 
would  accuse  Him  to  Pilate  as  a  traitor  and  an 
inciter  of  riot. 

"And  when  they  were  come  they  said  unto 
Him,  Master,  we  know  that  thou  art  true  and  r 
carest  not  for  any  man:  for  thou  regardest 
not  the  person  of  men  but  of  a  truth  teachest 
the  way  of  God.  Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute 
unto  Caesar  or  not?    Shall  we  give  or  shall  we 


WITH     HIM     TWO     ROBBERS      179 

not  give?  But  He,  knowing  their  hypocrisy, 
said  unto  them,  Why  tempt  ye  me;  bring  me 
a  penny  that  I  may  see  it.  And  they  brought 
it.  And  He  saith  unto  them,  Whose  is  the 
image  and  superscription?  And  they  say  unto 
Him,  Caesar's.  And  Jesus  said  unto  them, 
Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's 
and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's. 
And  they  marveled  at  His  answer  and  held 
their  peace." 

It  was  a  magnificent  answer.  For  a  second 
time  in  a  single  day  He  had  proved  Himself 
the  master  of  the  brainiest  men  in  the  Capital. 
Yet  His  victory  was  not  an  unmixed  triumph, 
as  no  one  knew  better  than  Himself.  The 
crowd  had  expected  to  hear  Him  hurl  back 
the  question  with  some  demagogic  outburst 
against  the  iniquity  of  Caesar's  rule  and  the 
injustice  of  his  tribute.  They  had  hoped 
for  a  crisp  epigram  with  which  to  rouse  the 
smoldering  spirit  of  nationality.  It  was  the 
last  of  His  great  temptations.  To  have 
answered  as  the  people  hoped  He  would 
answer  would  have  been  to  sweep  the  city  into 
a  revolt  out  of  which  He  would  have  emerged 


180    A  YOUNG  man's  JESUS 

either  as  king  or  as  martyr.  For  the  last 
time  He  met  squarely  the  evil  impulse  to 
subordinate  the  spiritual  element  of  His  mes- 
sage to  a  mere  economic  and  political  leader- 
ship. "Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that 
are  Caesar's,"  He  said,  "and  to  God  the  things 
that  are  God's."  Whilst  the  questioners  were 
silenced  and  abashed,  the  crowd  repeated 
the  answer  over  to  themselves,  remembering 
the  first  half  and  forgetting  the  rest.  "He 
told  us  to  render  tribute  to  Caesar,"  they 
said,  "surely  then  He  is  no  king."  Deliber- 
ately He  had  pricked  the  national  hope  at 
its  most  sensitive  spot.  From  that  moment 
the  hosannas  grew  faint  and  more  faint  until 
they  were  drowned  down  entirely  in  the 
bitter  cries  of  "Crucify!" 

The  Sadducees,  cynical,  but  intellectually 
keen,  brought  Him  their  vulgar  question,  and 
them  He  answered  with  logic  so  keen  and  in- 
controvertible that  "they  durst  not  any  more 
ask  Him  any  question." 

Only  the  scribes  were  left:  before  the  day 
was  over  one  of  their  number  rose  to  try 
conclusions  with  Him.     The  question  as  to 


WITH     HIM     TWO     ROBBERS      181 

which  was  most  important  among  the  five 
hundred  laws  and  precepts  of  the  Pharisees 
had  been  always  discussed  and  never  settled. 
To  venture  an  opinion  on  it  was  certainly 
to  inflame  one  or  another  faction  of  the  Phar- 
isaical party.  It  was  a  question  loaded  with 
explosive  and  the  scribe  knew  it.  "What 
commandment,"  he  asked  Jesus,  "is  the  first 
of  all." 

Closer  the  crowd  pressed  about  Him  as  they 
waited  for  His  answer  —  especially  the  Phar- 
isees —  ready  to  snatch  up  His  reply  and  dis- 
pute it  with  Him.  But  He  gave  them  no 
opportunity. 

He  answered,  "Hear,  oh  Israel!  The  Lord 
our  God,  the  Lord  is  one:  and  thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind, 
and  with  all  thy  strength.  This  is  the  first 
commandment.  The  second  is  this.  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  There  is 
none  other  commandment  greater  than  these." 

Deliberately  disregarding  the  elaborate  code 
of  their  law.  He  compressed  His  whole  teach- 
ing into  a  single  paragraph,  which  included. 


182         A     YOUNG     MAN*S     JESUS 

SO  He  said,  all  the  moral  law  that  could  pos- 
sibly be  written.  Let  men  observe  the  spirit 
of  this  commandment,  and  it  mattered  not 
about  the  form  of  their  worship,  the  character 
of  their  dress,  their  rituals  or  their  ceremonial. 
In  these  two  sentences  were  the  whole  law  and 
the  prophets. 

So  the  day  closed,  leaving  Him  unques- 
tionably the  intellectual  champion  of  Jerusa- 
lem. Wise  men  were  there  from  all  over  the 
world,  and  He  had  proved  Himself  wiser  than 
them  all.  The  leaders  of  every  party  had 
tried  their  skill  against  Him,  and  He  had 
flung  them  back  beaten  and  discomfited. 
It  was  His  day  of  supremest  triumph.  And 
yet,  such  was  the  nature  of  the  situation, 
by  His  very  victory  He  had  made  more  certain 
the  final  defeat.  Each  group  that  had  felt 
the  sharp  sting  of  His  logic  retired  more  bitter 
in  their  hatred,  more  certain  that  His  con- 
tinued existence  meant  destruction  to  their 
power.  He  had  offended  priests,  Pharisees, 
scribes,  and  Sadducees,  and  even  the  more 
revolutionary  among  the  populace.  He  knew 
it;  He  realized  that  the  day's  proceedings  had 


WITH     HIM     TWO     ROBBERS      183 

sealed  His  fate,  and  yet  majestically  He  walked 
out  from  among  them,  and  lay  down  upon  the 
Mount  of  Olives  to  untroubled  sleep. 

No  one  molested  Him  upon  the  following 
day,  which  was  spent  in  retirement  with  His 
disciples.  No  guard  watched  over  Him;  no 
spies  were  sent  to  invade  His  resting-place. 
It  would  have  been  a  simple  thing  to  set  out 
again  toward  Galilee,  and  they,  who,  inside 
the  city  walls,  had  perfected  their  plans  for 
His  defeat,  would  have  rejoiced  had  He 
seized  the  opportunity.  But  there  was  no 
wavering.  Young  as  He  was,  with  bounding 
pulses,  loving  the  world  and  the  joys  of  life 
as  few  men  have  ever  loved  them.  He  had 
deliberately  determined  to  die.  The  disciples 
even  then  did  not  suspect  it;  but  He  knew, 
when  He  walked  into  the  city  on  that  Thurs- 
day afternoon,  that  He  was  entering  those 
gates  for  the  last  time. 

That  night  at  supper  He  gathered  them 
together,  the  same  friendly,  companionable 
Lord  who  for  three  years  had  broken  their 
bread  and  blessed  it.  Others  in  His  position 
might  have  sought  to  be  excused  from  eating. 


184         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

or  called  their  followers  into  an  hour  of  solemn 
fast,  but  not  He.  After  supper  they  went 
out  into  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  where 
so  many  of  their  evenings  had  been  spent. 
The  very  air  was  fragrant  with  the  memory 
of  their  happiest  hours.  Under  this  tree  they 
had  gathered  for  worship,  while  the  setting 
sun  gilded  the  towers  of  the  city :  in  the  waters 
of  that  brook  they  had  often  found  refresh- 
ment: to  left  and  right  of  them  the  very 
trees  and  stones  cried  out  in  heartrending 
reminder  of  the  days  that  were  gone.  He 
walked  a  little  ahead,  in  silence,  followed  by 
the  eleven  —  for  one  had  slipped  away  at  the 
supper  table,  to  walk  with  them  no  more. 
Thus  He  led  them  up  into  the  Garden  until 
they  could  see  the  city  in  dim  outline  behind: 
and  He  left  them  while  He  fought  out  his  last 
battle  alone  —  and  won. 

In  the  loneliness  and  darkness  the  barriers 
of  His  determination,  which  had  held  firm 
under  the  taunting  insults  of  men,  broke,  and 
there  burst  over  His  soul  all  the  accumulated 
flood  of  grief  and  humiliation  which  the  pre- 
ceding weeks  had  piled  up.     One  after  another 


WITH     HIM     TWO     ROBBERS      185 

the  experiences  of  His  ministry  repeated 
themselves  —  the  rejection  by  his  own  towns- 
people, the  doubt  of  John,  the  stumbling 
discipleship  of  the  twelve;  the  plottings  of 
the  Pharisees,  the  hatred  of  the  Temple  group ; 
all  these  stampeded  in  quick  succession  across 
His  wounded  mind,  until  He  cried  out  in 
tortured    protest  — 

Where  was  the  justice  of  it?  How  could 
it  be  explained?  He  knew  His  own  heart: 
never  in  the  history  of  His  people.  He  knew, 
had  one  gone  forth  with  purer  motives  or 
more  unselfish  ideals:  never  one  had  strug- 
gled harder  for  the  right,  and  the  end  of  all 
the  struggle  was  what?  Not  merely  death  — 
the  fear  of  death  had  lost  its  terror  —  but 
ignominy,  shame,  the  accusation  of  blas- 
phemy, a  reputation  before  the  world  of  one 
who  had  sought  to  destroy  religion  and  truth, 
and  had  failed. 

Beaten  down,  broken  in  the  effort  to  stem 
alone  the  tide  of  His  grief.  He  sought  the  com- 
panionship of  His  disciples.  "My  soul  is 
exceeding  sorrowful  even  unto  death,"  He 
had  said  to  them.     "Tarry  ye  here  and  watch 


186         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

with  me."  And  when  He  came  back  to  them, 
after  only  a  Httle  absence,  He  found  them 
slumped  upon  the  ground  in  a  dead,  unknow- 
ing sleep.  Even  so  short  a  vigil  had  proved 
too  heavy  for  their  feebleness:  there  was  no 
comfort  to  be  found  with  them. 

The  evening  hours  wore  on,  and  still  He 
struggled.  "Father,"  He  cried  in  the  agony 
of  His  spirit,  "Father,  if  it  be  thy  will  let  this 
cup  pass  from  me.  Let  me  not  die  amid  the 
wreckage  of  everything  for  which  I  have  hoped 
and  struggled.  Save  me  from  a  death  that 
will  leave  my  name  a  blot  upon  the  world's 
memory.  Give  me  time  in  which  to  wipe 
out  the  shameful  charge  of  blasphemy  and  evil 
that  they  have  heaped  upon  me :  time  in  which 
to  build  this  little  handful  of  my  disciples  into 
sturdier  righteousness,  that  the  work  which 
thou  wouldst  have  done  in  the  world  may  not 
be  halted.  Oh,  Father,  not  yet  —  let  the  cup 
pass  for  a  little  while  until  the  work  is  done  — 
not  now  —  not  yet  —  " 

A  second  time  He  picked  His  way  back  to 
the  disciples,  only  to  find  them  still  lost  in 
slumber;    and  this  time  He  did  not  disturb 


WITH     HIM     TWO     ROBBERS     187 

them.  The  furore  of  His  grief  had  worn  itself 
out:  the  manhness  which  had  never  deserted 
Him  in  a  single  moment  of  His  three  taxed 
years,  which  had  never  been  taught  to  rely 
on  human  reenforcement  for  its  strength, 
forced  back  the  tide  of  His  humiliation  and 
distress.  There  have  been  in  the  world  other 
strong  men,  who  have  conquered  every  human 
obstacle  only  to  batter  their  souls  into  defeat 
against  the  inscrutable  plans  and  apparent 
injustices  of  the  Infinite.  The  Young  Man  of 
Galilee  met  that  final  temptation  to  betray 
His  manhood  and  rejected  it.  Out  of  the 
very  valley  of  His  despair  He  won  His  way 
back  to  self-control,  and  to  His  manliness 
brought  the  final  crown  of  perfection  in  the 
complete  entrusting  of  His  faith  and  His 
work  to  the  hand  of  God. 

"If  it  be  not  thy  will  that  this  cup  pass 
from  me,"  He  prayed  again,  "then,  Father, 
thy  will  be  done." 

It  was  the  victory  chant  after  the  pivotal 
battle  of  His  three-years'  war.  With  the 
calm  peace  of  the  conqueror  He  could  go 
back  to  His  disciples,  who  still  slumbered  all 


188         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

unconscious  of  the  struggle  that  had  taken 
place  not  a  dozen  yards  beyond  them.  He 
was  perfectly  prepared  for  the  final  scenes  in 
the  drama  of  His  life;  and  it  was  thus,  in  the 
midst  of  His  disciples,  still  heavy-eyed,  that 
the  soldiers  found  Him.  From  His  resting- 
place,  far  up  on  the  side  of  the  hill.  He  could 
see  them  crossing  the  brook,  and  could  follow 
the  weird  glare  of  their  torches  as  they  made 
their  clumsy  ascent  towards  Him.  The  clang 
of  their  armor  rang  jarringly  through  the 
peace  of  the  Garden:  the  occasional  rough 
word,  borne  on  the  breath  of  the  evening, 
seemed  more  than  profane  in  such  surround- 
ings. He  waited  until  they  had  stumbled 
almost  into  His  presence,  and  then,  rising, 
stepped  forth  to  meet  them. 

"Whom  seek  ye?"  He  inquired. 

Taken  by  surprise,  and  awed  by  His  pres- 
ence they  could  only  mumble  His  name: 

"Jesus  of  Nazareth." 

"I  am  He,"  He  answered  them. 

They  had  been  prepared  for  a  violent  out- 
burst, or  even  armed  resistance,  but  such 
magnificent  composure  was  beyond  the  narrow 


WITH    HIM    TWO    ROBBERS         189 

limits  of  their  experience.  Involuntarily 
they  drew  back,  and  some  of  them,  responding 
instinctively  to  the  tones  of  power,  "fell 
to  the  ground."  It  was  a  tribute  silent  but 
magnificent;  He  was  never  more  the  master 
than  in  the  moment  of  His  arrest. 

*'I  told  you,"  He  repeated  calmly,  "that 
I  am  He."  And  then,  His  thought  rebounding 
to  those  who  had  shared  with  Him  the  joys 
and  perils  of  His  three  years  of  public  life, 
"If  therefore  ye  seek  me  let  these  others  go 
their  way."  But  He  had  no  need  to  make 
the  demand.  As  He  turned  in  the  direction 
where  His  followers  had  stood,  it  was  to  find 
the  spot  deserted.  "They  all  left  Him  and 
fled."  Silently  the  soldiers  closed  in  about 
Him :   and  they  led  Him  away  —  alone. 

There  was  no  pretense  to  a  fair  trial.  The 
decision  had  been  made  against  Him  three 
years  before,  on  that  memorable  morning  when 
He  drove  the  robbers  from  the  Temple  and 
set  the  whole  corrupt  structure  of  their  world 
to  tottering.  The  Sanhedrin  —  the  Supreme 
Court  —  of  the  nation  hastily  convened  in  an 
illegal  night  session,  utterly  forgot  its  sense  of 


190         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

dignity  in  the  mad  hatred  of  its  members 
against  the  Young  Man  who  had  menaced  its 
fortunes.  Like  ill-bred  children  they  spat  upon 
Him  and  struck  Him  with  their  hands,  dancing 
about  Him  in  the  ecstasy  of  their  hate.  Their 
blows  left  Him  unmoved;  neither  taunts  nor 
insults  could  cause  Him  to  answer  a  word  to 
their  false  accusation.  He  was  their  prisoner, 
but  it  was  by  His  own  free  will.  They  knew  it. 
Even  in  their  wrath  they  felt  His  mastery,  and 
the  guilty  consciousness  added  to  their  wrath. 
A  little  thing  occurred  as  they  were  hurry- 
ing Him  across  the  city  to  the  judgment  hall 
of  Pilate,  just  an  incident  that  showed  them 
Pharisees  and  formalists  to  the  last.  It  was 
their  Passover  period,  when  to  enter  the  house 
of  an  unbeliever  was  to  sin  against^  their 
law.  Up  to  the  judgment  hall  they  rushed, 
and  just  outside,  their  voices  hoarse  with  the 
cries  of  "Crucify!"  they  stopped.  They 
were  there  to  shed  the  innocent  blood  of  one 
whose  only  crime  had  been  to  rebuke  their 
excesses.  Murder  was  nothing  to  them,  but 
to  enter  the  house  of  a  Gentile  —  that  was  an 
offense  against  their  religion. 


WITH    HIM    TWO    ROBBERS         191 

Reluctantly,  and  after  a  resistance,  remark- 
ably sustained  in  a  politician  and  a  hireling, 
Pilate  yielded  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  into 
their  hands.  "Behold  a  man,"  he  said,  rend- 
ering his  involuntary  tribute  to  the  most 
remarkable  prisoner  who  had  ever  been  haled 
before  him;  but  the  words  were  drowned  in 
the  hateful  roar  that  rolled  in  great  waves 
below.  "Crucify!  Crucify!"  came  the  shout 
from  the  robed  judges  and  priests  crowded  close 
about  the  palace,  and  "Crucify!"  echoed  the 
multitude  that  once  had  "heard  Him  gladly." 

So,  on  a  barren  hillock  outside  the  city, 
they  murdered  Him,  hanging  His  perfect 
body  on  a  cross;  and  on  either  side  they 
hanged  a  robber.  It  was  the  end.  The  crowd 
had  sickened  of  its  revenge  in  the  moment  of 
realization,  and  was  gone;  His  followers  were 
scattered  through  the  city,  each  alone  with 
his  sorrow;  there  was  nothing  left  of  the 
external  influences  that  had  impressed  men's 
minds  and  made  it  easy  to  believe  on  Him. 
He  could  do  no  miracle  there,  hanging  as  He 
was  in  the  throes  of  a  shameful  death;  and 
yet — 


192         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

"Jesus,"  said  one  of  the  robbers,  turning 
his  head  painfully  to  speak  the  words;  "Jesus, 
remember  me  when  thou  comest  into  thy 
kingdom." 

Think  of  it — even  as  He  waited  for  death 
there  upon  the  cross,  tortured  by  pain  and 
taunted  with  the  cries  of  passers-by,  the 
strange  magnetism  that  had  drawn  the  mul- 
titudes to  Him  still  made  itself  felt.  A  thief, 
hanged  like  Himself  upon  a  cross,  felt  His 
charm,  the  compelling  power  of  His  presence, 
and  even  there  believed.  To  the  very  end 
He  was  still  dominant,  the  incomparable 
master   of  men. 


XIII 

TEE   THIRD  DAY 

SO  came  night.  Along  the  stony  paths 
that  led  back  to  the  city,  wet-eyed 
women  stepped  droopingly.  Inside  the 
gates  at  the  house  of  the  high  priest.  His 
murderers  reclined  in  eager  celebration  of  the 
event  that  had  removed  the  chief  menace  to 
their  security.  And  down  from  the  stained 
shoulders  of  the  cross  friendly  arms  lifted 
Him  tenderly  and  bore  Him  away. 

It  was  over,  there  could  be  no  doubt  of 
that.  In  a  few  weeks  His  little  following, 
all  undisciplined,  would  be  scattered  abroad; 
sixty  days  would  be  enough  to  render  His 
name  only  an  obscure  memory.  It  had  been 
so  with  a  hundred  other  rebels  against  the 
established  order,  whose  names  were  recorded 
only  on  the  executioner's  record;  it  would 
be  so  with  Him.     Thus  they  reasoned,  who 


194         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

drank  their  wine  that  night  in  celebration  of 
His  destruction,  and  there  was  none  among 
His  disciples  who  even  dared  cherish  any 
hope.  What  they  did,  where  they  went,  for 
the  next  two  days,  they  could  not  afterwards 
remember.  Grief  covered  their  world  like  a 
shroud,  and  there  was  no  sun. 

And  on  the  third  day  something  happened. 

Some  way,  somehow,  the  sun  shone  again 
upon  the  tired  world.  By  some  magic  they 
who  had  buried  their  hearts  with  Him  re- 
ceived them  back  again.  Hope  sprang  sud- 
denly afresh  within  their  souls;  their  eyes 
danced. 

Men  have  disputed  much  as  to  what  it  was 
that  happened  to  them  on  tluit  third  day. 
Their  own  explanation  was  this  —  the  Young 
Man  of  Galilee,  whom  they  had  seen  crucified, 
came  back  into  their  dead  lives. 

Down  through  the  pageant  of  the  ages 
that  explanation  has  passed  from  generation 
to  generation,  carrying  hope.  *' Because  He 
lived,  we  shall  live  again,"  men  have  whispered 
to  each  other,  while  they  clasped  hands  above 
the  bitter  wreckage  of  death. 


THE     THIRD     DAY  195 

A  magnificently  audacious  hope,  you  say; 
a  fateful  hope  to  hang  upon  the  slender  word 
of  a  few  Galilean  fishermen.  Perhaps,  and 
yet  it  does  not  hang  upon  their  word  alone. 
"He  rose  from  the  dead,'*  said  the  eleven. 
But  you  need  not  depend  upon  their  testimony. 
Close  about  you,  in  your  own  city  if  you  will, 
you  may  find  hundreds  to  tell  you  the  story 
of  how  He  is  risen. 

"He  came  back  into  our  lives  on  the  third 
day,"  was  the  glad  news  the  disciples  preached. 
That  was  nineteen  hundred  years  ago.  But 
into  a  thousand  lives  today,  out  of  which  He 
has  died  as  completely  as  ever  He  did  out  of 
theirs,  He  does  come  back  with  power  that 
breeds  a  manliness  of  the  quality  of  His  own. 

On  more  than  one  occasion  I  myseK  have 
seen   Him   come. 

Under  the  elevated  railroad  structure  on 
Van  Buren  Street,  Chicago,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  street,  is  a  narrow  doorway  that 
leads  neither  into  a  cigar  store  nor  a  saloon. 
The  buildings  that  crowd  about  it  rise 
several  stories  higher  and  bend  down  over 


196         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

it  sneeringly.  Electric  cars,  which  in  their 
happier  moments  traverse  the  broad  thor- 
oughfares near  the  lake  front,  clang  out  their 
protests  as  they  are  hurried  by.  The  "ele- 
vated" thunders  up  above.  And  all  along 
the  sidewalk  the  well  to  do  are  jostled  up 
against  the  worthless.  Van  Buren  street  is 
the  dead-line  of  downtown  Chicago.  To  the 
north  of  it  respectability  travels  and  barters, 
worships,  marries  and  is  given  in  marriage. 
To  the  immediate  south  poor,  hopeless  bits 
of  human  wreckage  are  tossed  about  from  bar 
to  bar,  empty  bottles  on  the  sea  of  life.  The 
building  which  is  neither  a  cigar  store  nor  a 
saloon  is  the  Pacific  Garden  Mission.  Its 
door  opens  north,  but  those  who  enter  through 
it  come  up  from  below  the  dead-line  from  the 
south. 

Two  days  before  Christmas  you  will  find 
a  guard  at  the  door  who  will  inform  you  that 
the  room  is  full,  and  then,  noting  that  you 
come  from  the  north  instead  of  the  south, 
will  step  aside,  deferentially,  to  let  you  in. 
And  you  will  pass  into  a  long,  rather  dark 
hall  packed  full  of  men.     It  is  not  different 


THE     THIRD     DAY  197 

from  other  missions.  There  are  the  same 
platform  and  organ,  the  same  verses  painted 
on  the  walls,  the  same  ragged  song-books, 
and  the  same  smell.  Clothes  that  do  duty 
both  night  and  day  come  to  have  that  smell 
after  a  few  weeks.  When  you  have  been  to 
many  missions  you  grow  accustomed  to  it, 
and  they  who  work  there  all  their  lives  pretend 
not  to  notice  it  at  all.  You  will  sit  upon  the 
steps  of  the  platform  probably,  because  the 
chairs  are  full,  and  from  that  point  of  vantage 
you  can  read  the  signs  that  are  printed  on  the 
faces  down  below. 

It  is  sometimes  said  of  a  character  in  a  book 
that  "His  face  was  like  parchment."  These 
faces  are  of  that  sort;  yellowed  they  are,  and 
drawn,  and  life  has  written  on  them  in  black 
lines  and  in  red.  Most  of  the  messages  are 
as  easily  distinguished  as  the  verses  printed 
on  the  walls.  For  instance,  the  face  of  the 
bent,  blear-eyed  old  man  in  the  second  row  — 
you  see  it  —  reads,  "The  wages  of  sin  is 
death."  The  middle-aged  chap  whose  fea- 
tures have  some  trace  of  an  earlier  distinction 
—  the  lines  there  read,  "They  who  sow  the 


198    A  YOUNG  man's  JESUS 

wind  shall  reap  the  whirlwind."  The  writing 
on  the  face  of  the  young  fellow  who  sits  two 
rows  back  on  the  left  is  so  not  distinct.  One 
has  to  look  twice  and  carefully  to  make  it 
out.  Under  such  scrutiny  it  reads,  "Unless 
ye  repent  ye  shall  likewise  perish." 

They  are  not  pleasant  messages;  one  turns 
from  them  with  something  of  relief  to  the 
face  of  Harry  Monroe,  the  chief  gardener  in 
this  Pacific  Garden.  He  is  a  hard-packed 
man  of  medium  height,  who  preaches  in  short, 
swift  sentences,  driven  home  with  sharp 
jabs  of  his  arms.  He  was  leading  the  singing 
as  we  came  in  at  the  door.  Now  he  steps 
forward  to  introduce  one  of  the  mission's 
converts  who  is  going  to  "talk  to  the  boys." 

"Boys,  I  want  you  to  take  a  good  look  at 
this  next  speaker.  Do  you  see  him?  Looks 
pretty  good,  don't  he  —  black  coat  and  creased 
pants?  You  ought  to  have  seen  him  ten  years 
ago.  Why,  when  he  first  walked  in  here  he 
hadn't  had  a  bath  in  six  weeks  and  he  was  so 
crooked  he  cast  a  shadow  like  a  corkscrew." 

The  speaker  begins,  but  you  have  heard 
stories  like  his  a  good  many  times  before  and 


THE     THIRD     DAY  199 

unconsciously  your  attention  drifts  back  to 
the  faces  in  front.  Your  eyes  pass  searchingly 
from  one  to  the  other  and  settle  finally  on 
a  man  who  at  first  glance  has  little  to  distin- 
guish him  from  the  others.  His  clothes  are 
almost  as  shabby,  and  his  back  is  stooped. 
But  something  in  his  look  arrests  you  —  the 
eyes  shine  with  an  unusual  brilliance;  it  is 
as  though  an  unseen  spirit  had  breathed  on 
dead  embers  and  started  them  into  a  new  and 
brighter  light.  You  wish  some  way  that  you 
knew  the  story  connected  with  that  face. 
And  here  it  is. 

"I  don't  know  as  you'd  rightly  call  it  a 
story,  pardner.  I'm  what  you  might  call 
just  the  ordinary  sort  of  a  short-stake  man. 
You  don't  know  what  a  short-stake  man  is? 
Of  course  you  don't  —  I  forgot.  We're  all 
either  short-stake  men  or  long-stake  men, 
all  us  poor  lads  that  works  in  the  construction 
camps.  The  long-stake  man  saves  his  wad 
and  the  short-stake  man  blows  his  in,  and  there 
you  have  it  —  the  difference.  The  long- 
stake  man  may  be  savin'  for  the  old  lady  and 


200    A  YOUNG  man's  JESUS 

the  kids  and  sendin'  his  wad  home  regular 
every  month.  Or  he  may  just  be  savin' 
for  a  couple  o'  months  till  he  gets  enough  to 
go  on  a  continuous  jag.  But  us  short-stakers 
never  saves  nothin'.  It's  work  a  week  and 
then  all  night  at  the  bar,  and  then  work 
another  week.  And  when  we  don't  show  up 
Monday  mornin'  they  fires  us  and  we  move 
on  to  the  next  camp  and  starts  in  all  over 
again. 

"It  sounds  horrible  enough  all  right,  but 
you'd  understand  it  better  if  you  ever  went 
to  the  camps.  Your  sort  never  does  go,  of 
course.  You  ride  over  the  road  when  it's 
finished  and  look  out  along  the  track  and  see 
a  row  of  tar-paper  shacks  and  say:  *  There's 
a  construction  camp,'  but  you  never  seen  the 
hell  that's  there  when  the  road  is  goin'  through. 
If  you  did  you'd  understand  how  we  get 
to  be  short-stake  men.  You'd  know  how  it 
is  to  work  ten  hours  in  the  mud  and  have 
nothin'  to  do  on  Sunday  but  get  drunk  and 
imagine  you're  somewhere  else. 

"You  don't  care  about  my  family  —  and 
there  ain't  much  to  tell  about  them,  anyway. 


THE     THIRD     DAY  201 

The  old  lady  was  decent  and  hard  workin' 
enough  —  and  there  never  was  no  old  man. 
Least  I  never  heard  her  speak  about  him. 
And  soon  as  I  could  walk  to  the  railroad  I 
left  and  went  into  the  camps.  I  had  some 
ambition  at  that;  most  of  us  do  at  the  start. 
And  when  they  started  me  in  as  water  boy  I 
thought  maybe  I  could  see  my  way  clear  right 
up  to  foreman,  and  maybe  even  higher'n 
that.  But,  man,  you  don't  know  the  curse 
of  it.  You  don't  know  what  it  is  to  work 
and  work,  and  roll  in  between  dirty  blankets 
on  hard  board  bunks.  You  don't  know  the 
rotten  things  you  hear  and  the  rotten  sights 
you  see.  And  hell  camps  on  the  trail  of  the 
construction  gang,  and  the  Devil  is  the  first 
passenger  over  the  rails.  And  you're  lonesome 
for  decent  people  and  home  and  nice  girls  and 
some  one  that  cares. 

"It's  an  awful  business,  pardner.  I  re- 
member the  first  camp  that  I  went  to;  they 
claimed  that  the  town  was  the  wickedest  town 
in  the  world,  and  I  guess  probably  it  was  at 
that.  We  was  sort  of  proud  of  the  claim, 
anyway,  and  the  fellows  took  some  pride  in 


202         A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

makin'  it  good.  There  hadn't  been  no  town 
there  at  all  ten  days  before.  And  then  sud- 
denly the  work  opened  up.  Five  camps  was 
started  within  five  miles.  The  graders  come 
and  the  bridge  gangs,  almost  a  thousand  men 
in  ten  days,  shipped  in  in  bunches  like  hogs. 
And  where  there  hadn't  been  nothin'  before 
but  one  little  store,  with  the  post-office  in  it, 
all  of  a  sudden  there  was  ten  saloons  and  a 
couple  of  gamblin'  joints  and  a  barber  shop. 
And  girls  come,  too  —  poor  things.  The 
city'd  had  its  use  of  them  and  had  thrown 
them  out,  and  they  found  their  way  into  the 
camps.  And  that  was  home  to  me  for  a  year. 
*'I  don't  know  just  how  I  come  to  get  to 
drinkin'  but  maybe  you'd  understand  if  you'd 
been  in  the  camps.  I  was  all  right  while  the 
work  lasted,  but  Sundays,  when  the  job  shut 
down,  it  just  seemed  as  if  I  couldn't  stand  it 
at  all.  The  lonesomeness,  pardner,  is  what 
does  it,  that  and  to  know  that  whatever  you 
do  nobody's  goin'  to  know  it,  and  nobody 
cares.  It  just  used  to  seem  to  me  that  if 
there  was  one  human  bein'  that  would  care 
whether  I  kep'  on  hvin'  or  not,  that  maybe  I 


THE     THIRD      DAY  203 

would  have  pulled  through  all  right.  But 
there  wasn't  no  one.  And  so  I  just  got  to 
goin'  the  way  of  the  crowd,  and  pretty  soon 
I  was  workin'  for  the  saloons  as  hard  as  the 
rest  of  the  guys. 

"There  ain't  any  use  of  botherin'  to  tell 
the  whole  yarn.  You  wouldn't  understand 
anyway,  because  you've  never  been  to  the 
camps.  I  got  to  firin'  on  a  dinky,  and  after 
a  while  they  gave  me  one  to  run.  And  that 
paid  me  $3.50  a  day.  First  I  used  to  save 
a  little  every  month,  but  there  weren't  nothin' 
to  do  with  the  money  except  to  buy  booze. 
And  I  kept  makin'  the  stakes  a  little  shorter 
and  the  celebrations  a  little  longer,  until 
finally  they  chucked  me  out  of  the  job  and  I 
banged  around  from  one  camp  to  another, 
workin'  a  few  days  and  blowin'  it  in,  and  work- 
in'  and  blowin'  it  in. 

"Winters  when  the  jobs  shut  down  I  drifted 
back  to  Chicago  with  the  rest,  or  to  Denver 
or  San  Francisco,  or  wherever  the  nearest  city 
happened  to  be.  Sometimes  there  was  the 
ice  camps  to  give  you  a  job  through  the  cold 
months.     Sometimes  I  just  hung  around  the 


204         A     YOUNG     MAN     S     JESUS 

gin  mills  down  here  south  of  Van  Buren; 
sometimes  I  shovelled  snow  for  a  while,  but 
it  was  always  the  booze.  Work  and  drink, 
and  more  work  and  more  drink,  made  up  the 
program  —  and  I  come  to  sort  of  like  it  finally, 
and  then  to  think  that  after  all  it  was  all  the 
life  that  I'd  ever  know,  or  care  to  know. 
And  finally  I  just  quit  thinkin'  at  all. 

"I  presume  you're  married,  pardner?  No? 
Well,  you  got  some  folks,  ain't  you  —  someone 
that  you  sort  of  care  for  more'n  the  rest  of  the 
world,  and  that  sort  of  Hkes  you?  I  thought 
so.  Was  you  ever  away  from  them  at  this 
time  of  the  year,  along  now  about  Christmas, 
in  some  town  where  you  didn't  know  no  one? 
If  you  was  you  can  imagine  a  little  how  it 
used  to  hit  me.  Lord,  how  I  used  to  hate 
it  —  the  things  in  the  windows,  and  the  fellows 
in  overcoats  and  the  good-lookin'  girls  on  the 
streets.  And  everyone  happy  and  laughin' 
and  spendin'  their  money. and  plannin'  good 
times  at  home  with  the  folks.  Home  —  the 
word  used  to  make  me  pretty  near  sick.  To 
know  that  everyone  else  in  the  world  had  a 
home,  and  someone  in  it  that  cared. 


THE     THIRD     DAY  205 

"Last  year  some  way  it  seemed  to  get  me 
worse  than  it  ever  had  before.  I  don't  know 
why  —  perhaps  because  I'm  not  as  young  as 
I  used  to  be,  and  it  seemed  as  though  I'd 
done  everythin'  in  the  world  that  I  could 
to  find  pleasure,  and  all  I  had  for  my  pains 
was  memories  that  hurt  when  I  looked  at  them. 
Everywhere  was  Christmas,  until,  pardner, 
it  seemed  to  me  that  rather'n  have  that 
cursed  day  come  on  me  again  I'd  end  the  whole 
business.  Sounds  awful  to  you,  probably, 
but  it  didn't  seem  awful  to  me  then,  least  not 
so  awful  as  the  lonesomeness  and  hell  of  the 
day.  And  I  made  up  my  mind  to  quit  the 
whole  business  —  the  river  was  cold,  but  it 
would  do  its  work  quick,  and  I  knew  other 
fellows  that  had  gone  out  that  way  before, 
and  it  seemed  to  me  they  was  lucky. 

"Does  it  bore  you?  No?  Well,  there 
ain't  much  more  to  tell.  Why  I  didn't  do 
it  I  don'  know.  But  some  one  had  told  me 
that  this  mornin'  —  it  was  just  a  year  ago 
this  mornin' —  some  one  told  me  that  today 
Harry  Monroe  and  his  crowd  in  here  would 
be  feedin'  the  bums.     Why  not  get  a  square 


206         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

meal?  I  says  to  myself.  If  you're  goin' 
to  end  the  rotten  game,  why  don't  you  end  it 
with  your  stomach  full?  Maybe  it  was  that, 
or  maybe  it  was  because  I  needed  a  little  time 
to  brace  up  my  nerve.  But  I  turned  in  here 
anyway,  and  sat  down  right  here  in  this 
seat. 

"It  was  the  first  time  I  ever  got  into  a 
place  like  this,  and  what  they  were  doin' 
didn't  mean  much  to  me.  I  was  too  busy 
thinkin'  about  my  own  troubles.  There  was 
a  lot  of  singin',  mostly  by  Harry,  with  a  little 
by  some  of  the  bums  that  thought  they  would 
get  more  of  the  grub  if  they  sang.  Then  there 
was  speakin'  by  well-dressed  fellows  from 
uptown  that  looked  as  though  they  had  homes 
and  someone  to  work  for.  And  I  didn't 
listen  to  them.  Finally  Harry  got  up.  I 
didn't  pay  much  attention  at  first,  but  after 
a  while  what  he  was  sayin'  sort  of  drummed 
into  my  ears  and  I  sat  up  and  began  to  take 
notice. 

"I  don't  remember  it  very  well  now,  but 
I  mind  that  he  said  he  was  down  and  out  once 
himself.     And  he  told  us  his  hard  luck  story. 


THE     THIRD     DAY  207 

and  finally  he  says,  'You  fellows  think  there 
ain't  no  one  as  cares;  but  I'm  here  to  tell 
you  you're  wrong.  There's  One  that  does 
care  and  He's  cared  ever  since  you  was  born. 
Every  night  that  you've  been  soaked  with 
booze  He's  cried  for  you.  And  every  day  that 
you've  pan-handled  your  way  along  these 
dirty  streets  He's  been  walkin'  along  with 
you  and  try  in'  to  give  you  a  hand.  And  you 
wouldn't  have  nothin'  to  do  with  Him.  You 
gave  Him  the  marble  shoulder.  And  He  cried 
for  you,  and  He  loves  you,  and  He  wants  you 
to  give  Him  a  chance.' 

"'What  sort  of  foolishness  is  that?'  I  says 
to  myself,  but  I  didn't  say  nothin'  out  loud 
and  Harry  went  right  along  talkin'.  'He 
used  to  work  at  the  carpenter  business,' 
says  Harry,  'and  He  had  his  own  troubles 
in  life,  and  He  knows  what  it  is  to  be  down 
and  out  and  have  everybody  in  the  world  on 
the  other  side.  That's  why  He's  strong  for 
you.  His  name  is  Jesus.  He  followed  you 
in  here  today  and  He's  standin'  right  along- 
side of  you  now.  And  He  cares  for  you,  boys, 
He  cares.'" 


208         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

"Well,  that's  all  —  except  that  I  give  Him 
a  chance,  the  way  Harry  said  —  and  I  find 
out  what  Harry  says  was  no  lie.  I  been  sober 
now  for  a  year,  pardner,  the  first  decent  year 
in  my  life  since  I  was  fifteen  years  old.  And 
I'm  savin'  the  stake  every  week  for  a  little 
home  of  my  own,  and  there's  a  girl  that's 
promised  to  come  in  when  I  get  it  fixed.  And 
every  day  for  a  year  I  been  walkin'  through 
these  streets  with  one  shoulder  a  little  higher'n 
the  other,  because  He's  had  His  hand  on  one 
of  them.  And,  pardner,  it's  the  greatest 
feelin'  in  the  world  to  know  that  He's  walkin' 
alongside,  and  He  cares — " 

There  is  a  rustle  back  by  the  door  and 
waiters  come  elbowing  their  way  into  the 
room  with  great  trays  of  ham  sandwiches  and 
pitchers  of  black  coffee  and  plates  of  rolls. 
The  dark,  bleared  eyes  of  the  men  turn  hun- 
grily in  that  direction.  They  reach  out  hke 
animals  and  snatch  at  the  trays  as  the  waiters 
pass  down  between  them.  In  swift,  beast- 
like gulps  they  swallow  the  food,  stretching 
out  their  grimy  hands  at  the  same  time  for 


THE     THIRD     DAY  209 

more.  Some  visitor  at  your  side,  who  has 
come  from  curiosity  and  who  does  not  beheve 
in  missions,  turns  away  in  disgust.  "Look 
at  them  fighting  their  way  up  to  the  trough," 
he  grumbles.  "What  good  does  it  do  to 
feed  them.'^  Look  at  them  fight  for  it — the 
beasts." 

You  look,  but  your  gaze  turns  back  to  your 
friend  in  the  rear  of  the  room  near  the  door. 
It  was  just  a  year  ago,  you  remember,  that  he, 
too,  was  a  beast,  fighting  his  way  into  the 
trough.  He  has  paused  in  his  eating  to  speak 
earnestly  to  the  wistful  young  fellow  who 
sits  at  his  right.  And  as  he  speaks  there 
comes  over  the  wistful  face  an  expression  of 
wonder,  then  greater  wonder,  and  finally  a 
gleam  that  seems  almost  the  promise  of  con- 
tent. 

Hundreds  of  times  in  all  sorts  of  places, 
I  have  seen  a  tremor  in  a  very  grave  of  a  life, 
and  out  of  that  grave  the  Young  Man  of 
Galilee  has  emerged  triumphant.  It  is  a 
sight  not  reserved  for  the  wise  or  the  privi- 
leged.    Anyone  may  see  it  for  himself  on  any 


210         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

night  on  the  Bower3%  in  Water  Street,  in 
Van  Buren  Street,  in  a  dozen  parts  of  almost 
any  city.  Wherever  it  happens  it  is  the  one 
greatest  masterpiece  that  can  ever  be  written 
on  the  Hfe  of  the  Young  Man  of  Gahlee,  the 
only  perfect  tribute  to  His  manliness. 

For  there  have  been  many  manly  men  in 
the  world,  many  even  with  courage  sufficient 
to  die  for  their  faith.  But  in  all  history  there 
has  been  only  one  manliness  so  potent,  so 
superlatively  youthful  and  vibrant  with  life 
that  it  can  reach  across  nineteen  centuries, 
and,  touching  a  dead  life,  create  new  manliness 
in  its  own  image. 

These  beings  new-created  —  they  are  His 
resurrection. 


XIV 

MORE   THAN  A  MAN 

A  GENERATION  later,  in  the  Im- 
perial City  of  Rome,  another  young 
man  died,  in  his  thirty-first  year. 
Only  a  handful  of  sobbing  peasants  mourned 
the  Young  Man  of  Galilee.  The  tidings  of 
His  death  were  carried  a  little  distance  beyond 
Jerusalem  into  the  villages  that  He  had  vis- 
ited, where  they  caused  a  momentary  flutter 
of  comment  and  passed  rapidly  out  of  memory. 
The  great  historian  of  His  nation  mentions 
the  crucifixion  in  a  mere  sentence  and  in 
enumerating  the  religious  sects  of  the  period 
omits  any  reference  to  the  pathetic  little  band 
of  His  followers.  No  disciplined  organiza- 
tion remained  to  keep  His  memory  fresh; 
no  books  to  perpetuate  His  message;  noth- 
ing— 

But  when,  in  the  Imperial  City,  the  other 
young  man  died  the  whole  world  heard,  and 


212         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

remembered.  For  since  his  seventeenth  year 
his  word  had  been  absolute  from  Spain  to 
the  Himalayas;  a  thousand  governors  and 
tetrarchs  had  borne  rule  in  his  name,  and 
to  the  farthest  corners  of  the  known  world 
armies  had  carried  the  eagles  of  his  standards. 

Not  a  dozen  men  in  all  history  have  enjoyed 
so  splendid  an  opportunity  to  re-create  the 
earth  in  their  own  image.  Rome  had  wel- 
comed him  eagerly;  he  was  so  young,  so 
handsome,  and  in  his  first  few  years,  appar- 
ently so  good.  The  Senate  had  hastened 
to  confer  its  honors  upon  him,  and  the  rough 
voices  of  soldiers  broke  forth  into  enthusiastic 
acclaim  at  his  approach.  Let  him  but  nod, 
and  a  city  would  rise  full-grown  out  of  the 
sands  of  the  desert,  or  three  thousand  miles 
away  a  whole  province  be  laid  desolate.  What 
he  did  was  right,  for  was  he  not  Emperor, 
and  a  god? 

For  seventeen  long  years  —  six  times  the 
public  life  of  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  — 
there  was  no  other  will  within  the  weary 
world  but  his.  When  brutish  passion  slowly 
overran  his  soul,  subjugating  the  finer  sensi- 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  213 

bill  ties  of  his  earlier  years,  there  was  no  effec- 
tive protest  against  his  ruthlessness.  The 
wisest,  most  patriotic  men  in  Rome  were 
blotted  out  to  ease  his  guilty  dread,  and  there 
was  only  a  murmured  discontent.  Even  the 
smoldering  ruins  of  the  Imperial  City  itself, 
sacrificed  to  make  an  evening's  spectacle  for 
his  degenerate  enjoyment,  were  not  sufficient 
to  rouse  revolt.  The  world  was  his  own;  he 
was  omnipotent  in  it;  and  when  at  length 
death  struck  the  blow  that  had  been  so  long 
delayed,  men  could  not  believe  that  he  was 
dead.  Surely  omnipotence  could  not  perish; 
surely  a  god,  to  whom  the  world  had  proffered 
worship  during  the  memory  of  half  the  liv- 
ing population  would  not  be  subject  to  the 
common  fate  of  men.  '^Nero  redivivuSy^  they 
cried  —  "Nero  will  return"  —  and  for  a  thou- 
sand years  there  were  those  that  believed  it. 
The  age  was  prone  to  superstition;  even 
men  of  solid  sense  in  Rome  felt  the  spell 
which  the  dominant  personality  of  the  dead 
emperor  had  cast  upon  them.  The  whisper 
*'Nero  will  return"  was  sufficient  to  carry  a 
tremor  into  the   very  heart  of  the  palace; 


214         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

and  at  intervals  for  ten  centuries  men  rose  in 
this  province  or  that  to  proclaim  themselves 
Nero  reincarnated,  and  always  there  were 
behevers  who  flocked  to  the  raised  standard. 

Even  the  persecuted  Christian  Church  did 
not  escape  the  influence  of  the  superstition. 
Such  fearful  moral  turpitude  as  his,  it  seemed, 
must  have  gained  itself  an  immortality  of 
infamy.  The  author  of  the  Apocalypse, 
though  he  did  not  credit  the  superstition, 
made  use  of  it;  his  "beast  with  the  healed 
wound,"  was  none  other  than  the  hated 
emperor  resurrected,  and  in  his  vision  of  the 
Antichrist,  shared  by  the  great  multitude  of 
his  fellow  Christians,  one  may  read  the  dread 
belief  that  Nero  would  return. 

But  generations  passed  and  Nero  did  not 
return.  Little  by  little  the  legend  of  his 
resurrection  grew  more  faint,  one  by  one  they 
who  had  centered  their  hope,  or  their  fear, 
upon  him  dropped  off.  And  today  there  is 
not  in  all  the  world  a  single  human  being  to 
whom  the  cry  "Nero  redivivus"  would  cause 
one  momentary  flicker  of  hope.  Nero  is 
forever  dead:  the  man  who  held  the  world  in 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  215 

liis  hand,  for  whose  return  thousands  looked, 
has  today  no  shrine  in  any  single  human 
heart. 

And  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee,  draining 
out  His  heart's  blood  upon  a  felon's  cross  — 
what  of  Him?  Three  days  after  they  had 
laid  Him  into  the  tomb,  there  were  a  score 
of  sorrowing  people  in  Jerusalem  to  whom  in 
some  astonishing  fashion  the  conviction  came 
suddenly  that  He  had  risen  from  the  dead, 
was  in  truth  again  among  them.  Sixty  days 
later  the  score  had  become  three  thousand; 
a  decade  passed  and  the  far-off  provinces 
were  startled  by  the  announcement,  "They 
that  have  turned  the  world  upside  down  have 
come  hither  also";  and  within  a  short  cen- 
tury it  was  written,  and  acknowledged  by 
both  friends  and  enemies  alike,  that  "At  this 
time  there  is  no  people  under  heaven,  even 
of  those  that  wander  on  the  desert  and  dwell 
in  tents,  where  prayers  are  not  daily  offered 
in  the  name  of  the  crucified  Jesus." 

The  faith  that  centered  on  a  throne  grew 
dimmer  in  each  generation  until  it  flickered 
and  went  out;  the  faith  born  underneath  the 


216    A  YOUNG  man's  JESUS 

cross  and  at  the  mouth  of  a  borrrowed  tomb 
finally  compassed  the  world.  What  shall 
be  said  in  explanation  of  a  phenomenon  so 
contrary  to  all  human  probability?  Of  all 
the  great  ones  who  have  sought  with  their 
little  lifetimes  to  reshape  the  world,  only 
one  —  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee  —  has  in- 
spired permanently  in  any  considerable 
portion  of  humanity  the  conviction  that  He 
is  still  present  in  the  world,  actively  and  dom- 
inantly  influential.  Shall  you  say  that  credit 
is  due  to  the  shrewdness  of  His  chief  followers 
who  fabricated  the  myth  concerning  Him  and 
perpetuated  it.^^  Nero's  followers  were  greater 
in  number,  more  powerful  in  wealth  and  not 
less  shrewd.  Or  is  it  easier  to  say  that  He 
was  more  than  a  man? 

"Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,"  said 
the  Young  Man  of  Galilee,  "but  my  words 
shall  not  pass  away" — an  astounding  utter- 
ance in  the  mouth  of  a  youth,  an  untaught 
peasant,  hardly  out  of  the  shadow  of  a 
carpenter  shop.  But  not  more  astound- 
ing than  scores  of  other  sentences  that  fell 
from  His   lips.     Forget   for  a   moment   that 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  217 

you  know  the  source  of  these  words;  try  to 
hear  them  as  though  they  were  new  to  your 
ears;  get  the  full  compelhng  power  of  them. 
Listen  — 

"I  am  come  a  light  into  the  world  that 
whosoever  believeth  on  me  should  not  abide 
in  darkness.  And  if  any  man  hear  my  words 
and  believe  not,  I  judge  him  not;  for  I  came 
not  to  judge  the  world,  but  to  save  the  world." 

"I  am  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life:  no 
man  cometh  to  the  Father  but  by  me." 

"All  things  that  the  Father  hath  are  mine. 
.  .  .  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you.  Whatso- 
ever ye  shall  ask  of  the  Father  in  my  name  he 
will  give  it  to  you." 

"In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation, 
but  be  of  good  cheer;  I  have  overcome  the 
world." 

"These  things  spake  Jesus  and  lifted 
up  His  eyes  to  heaven,  and  said.  Father  the 
hour  is  come,  glorify  thy  son,  that  thy  Son 
may  also  glorify  thee." 

"As  thou  hast  given  Him  power  over  all 
flesh  that  He  should  give  eternal  hfe  to  as 
many  as  thou  hast  given  Him." 


218         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

"And  this  is  life  eternal  that  men  should 
beheve  upon  thee,  the  only  true  God;  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent." 

"Also  I  say  unto  you,  Whosoever  shall 
confess  me  before  men,  him  shall  the  Son  of 
Man  confess  before  the  angels  of  God.  But 
he  that  denieth  me  before  men  shall  be  denied 
before  the  angels  of  God." 

"I  am  the  bread  of  life;  he  that  cometh 
to  me  shall  not  hunger,  and  he  that  believeth 
on  me  shall  never  thirst." 

"For  I  am  come  down  from  Heaven  not 
to  do  mine  own  will  but  to  do  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  me.  For  this  is  the  will  of  my  Father 
that  everyone  that  beholdeth  the  Son  and 
believeth  on  Him  should  have  eternal  life; 
and  I  will  raise  Him  up  at  the  last  day." 

"Jesus  answered.  If  I  glorify  myself  my 
glory  is  nothing;  it  is  my  Father  that  glori- 
fieth  me;  of  whom  ye  say,  he  is  your  God. 
And  ye  have  not  known  him,  but  I  know  him 
and  keep  his  word.  Your  father  Abraham 
rejoiced  to  see  my  day,  and  he  saw  it  and  was 
glad.  The  Jews  therefore  said  unto  him. 
Thou  art  not  yet  fifty  years  old  and  hast  thou 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  219 

seen  Abraham?  Jesus  said  unto  them,  Verily, 
verily  I  say  unto  you,  Before  Abraham  was 
I  am." 

"And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth, 
shall  draw  all  men  unto  me." 

*'Not  everyone  that  saith  unto  me  Lord, 
Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven; 
but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which 
is  in  heaven." 

"Again  the  high  priests  asked  Him,  and 
said  unto  Him,  Art  thou  the  Christ  the  son 
of  the  Blessed?  And  Jesus  said,  I  am: 
and  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the 
right  hand  of  power,  and  coming  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven." 

Merely  drops,  these,  dipped  up  at  random 
out  of  the  majestic  river  of  His  utterance, 
yet  how  astounding!  In  the  glory  of  His 
physical  manliness,  in  the  keenness  of  His 
enjoyment  of  life.  He  was  as  we  have  seen 
Him,  delightfully  but  superbly  normal.  What 
shall  be  said  of  utterances  like  these  in  one 
otherwise  so  splendidly  well-balanced  and 
sane?  Shall  we  say  that  He  was  carried 
away  by  the  ecstasy  of  His  emotions,  that 


220         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

He  who  in  all  else  was  so  clearly  master  of 
every  situation,  failed  in  this  respect  to  be 
master  of  Himself?  Or  is  it  easier  to  accept 
the  belief  that  has  persisted  from  heart  to 
heart  through  nineteen  centuries,  that  these 
words  are  the  final  manifestation  of  His 
real  character;  that  abnormal  and  meaning- 
less as  they  are  on  the  lips  of  any  man,  they 
are  the  perfectly  natural  expression  of  one 
who  was  more  than  a  man? 

If  time  be  the  test  of  words  as  it  is  of  lives, 
what  shall  be  thought  of  the  continuing 
vitality  of  these  sentences  in  comparison 
with  any  other  words  that  have  ever  been 
spoken  or  written.  Socrates,  too,  gave  the 
world  great  utterances,  as  did  Aristotle  and 
hundreds  of  others.  Placed  in  the  curriculum 
of  a  seminary  or  college,  they  are  still,  after 
more  than  two  thousand  years,  capable  of 
bringing  to  those  who  read  them  a  new  vision 
of  truth,  a  clearer  habit  of  thought.  But  in 
all  the  generations  that  have  passed  since 
Socrates  lived  no  one  has  ever  thought  it 
worth  while  to  risk  his  life  in  order  that  the 
words  of  Socrates  might  be  translated  into  the 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  221 

speech  of  a  savage  tribe.  Milton  wrote  mag- 
nificently of  life  and  death  and  Heaven  and 
eternity,  the  very  subjects  of  the  Young 
Man  of  Galilee;  and  men  of  sensitive  soul 
are  lifted  out  of  themselves  at  the  beauty 
of  Milton's  thought.  But  translate  Milton 
into  the  language  of  the  South  Sea  Islanders, 
teach  them  his  cadences  by  heart,  and  they 
would  be  savages  still. 

But  once  carry  the  words  of  the  Young  Man 
of  Galilee  to  a  pagan  shore,  and  behold  a 
miracle.  In  even  one  generation  a  civiliza- 
tion is  created  full  grown  and  perfect,  and 
justice  takes  the  place  of  hate. 

Much  can  be  wrought  in  the  minds  of  men 
by  clever  ruse,  but  is  it  reasonable  to  believe 
that  a  civihzation  could  be  reared  on  a  corner- 
stone of  falsehood?  If  the  Young  Man  of 
GaHlee  was  self-deceived  in  the  claims  that 
He  made  for  Himself,  how  have  those  words 
retained  regenerating  vitality  through  a  lapse 
of  nineteen  hundred  years? 

Almost  any  reformer  in  history  had  a 
better  chance  than  the  Young  Man  of  Gahlee 
to  perpetuate   his   influence.     Marcus  Aure- 


222         A    YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

lius,  Roman  Emperor,  speaking  his  thoughts 
with  the  bulwarks  of  the  Empire  as  his  sound- 
ing board,  also  trained  a  little  group  of  dis- 
ciples who  were  to  carry  forward  his  reforming 
message  after  he  should  be  gone.  But  a 
single  generation  removed  them,  and  so  far 
as  its  life  and  habits  are  concerned  the  world 
might  never  have  known  that  he  or  his  fol- 
lowers had  sought  to  influence  it.  Socrates 
left  Xenophon  to  preserve  his  message,  and 
Plato,  a  pupil  almost  greater  than  the  master, 
to  develop  and  perfect  its  power.  Thousands 
today  are  grateful  to  him  for  the  mental  stimu- 
lus which  His  message  brings.  But  never  yet 
have  I  seen  a  man  turned  from  a  drunkard's 
course  into  good  citizenship  by  reading  Soc- 
rates, nor  a  community  that  gave  credit  to 
his  words  for  whatever  in  its  character  is  best. 
Napoleon  said:  "Alexander,  Caesar,  Charle- 
magne and  myself  founded  empires.  But 
on  what  did  we  rest  the  creation  of  our  genius.'^ 
Upon  sheer  force.  Jesus  Christ  alone  founded 
His  empire  upon  love;  and  at  this  hour 
millions  of  men  will  die  for  Him.  In  every 
other    existence    but    that    of    Christ    how 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  223 

many  imperfections.  From  the  first  day  to 
the  last  He  is  the  same;  majestic  and  simple; 
infinitely  firm  and  infinitely  gentle." 

Empire  is  a  large  word.  It  denotes 
numbers,  and  wealth,  and  absolute  rule  within 
fixed  boundaries.  Can  the  rule  of  the  Young 
Man  of  Galilee  be  justly  called  imperial  .^^ 
Is  the  influence  of  His  words  and  life  gaining 
dominion  over  the  affairs  of  the  nations? 
Are  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  becoming  the 
kingdoms  of  His  God?  Observation  must 
join  its  hand  to  faith  in  the  answer  of  all  such 
questions,  and  no  two  men  will  read  the 
record  with  the  same  eyes.  For  myself  I 
have  found  some  satisfaction  in  sinking  a 
test  pit  here  and  there  into  the  great  powerful 
forms  of  modern  industrial  life,  to  discover 
whether,  near  its  heart,  it  carries  anything 
of  the  teachings  of  the  Young  Man  of  Galilee. 
Within  a  few  months  I  have  talked  with  six 
men,  typical  representatives  of  the  successful 
men  of  America,  directing  great  enterprises, 
and  dreaming  big  dreams. 

"What  is  your  ambition?"  I  said  to  one, 
the  president  of  a  railroad  that  spans  a  con- 


224         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

tinent.  "Why  do  you  work  so  hard  when  you 
have  raoney  enough?"  And  he  looked  at 
me  quizzically,  as  though  surprised  that  I 
should  understand  him  so  little  as  to  suppose 
money  the  mainspring  of  his  life. 

"Come  with  me,"  he  said,  "and  I  will  show 

you." 

We  went  far  out  into  the  West,  where  his 
railroad  controls  an  area  that  is  several  times 
larger  than  some  of  our  smaller  states.  We 
saw  the  untouched  part  of  the  vast  expanse,  a 
barren  waste  unfit  for  anything.  Then  sud- 
denly, we  had  stepped  across  an  imaginary 
line,  and  as  if  by  a  miracle  the  landscape  blos- 
somed all  about  us.  Flowers  bloomed,  crops 
held  forth  their  bounty,  men  and  women  and 
red-cheeked  children  played  joyously  at  the 
business  of  hfe. 

"That's  why  I  work,"  said  the  great  man. 
"I'm  finishing  up  the  part  of  God's  plan  that 
He  left  undone.  I'm  taking  the  desert  and 
making  it  fit  to  live  in.  I'm  picking  up  folks 
that  have  scraped  and  starved  and  struggled 
through  their  married  hfe,  and  I  am  bringing 
them  up  here  into  this  wonderful  new  country 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  225 

where  they  can  find  health  and  prosperity 
and  education  for  their  children  and  the 
fulfilment  of  dreams  —  where  they  can  crys- 
tallize their  existence  into  lives.  That's  why 
I'm  working  eighteen  hours  a  day;  the  money 
is  incidental.  Before  I  die  I  expect  to  bring 
a  million  people  up  here  and  have  them  wor- 
shiping God  in  happy  useful  lives.  That's 
my  faith,  my  life,  my  rehgion." 

"Where  did  you  learn  it?"     I  asked. 

And  he  answered,  "It  was  born  in  Naza- 
reth." 

"What  is  your  vision?"  I  asked  of  a  man 
who  directs  a  giant  corporation,  with  factories 
in  every  country  of  the  world,  and  hundreds 
of  millions  in  assets.  "Why  are  you  working 
so  hard?" 

"It's  a  long  way  from  realization  —  my 
vision,"  he  answered.  "There  are  lots  of 
abuses  that  have  grown  up  inside  corpora- 
tions and  when  you  are  working  with 
twenty-three  thousand  men  the  mass  moves 
sometimes  very  slowly.  But  at  the  first 
meeting  I  ever  held  with  our  directors,  I 
said. 


226         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

'"Gentlemen,  the  very  first  thing  I  propose 
to  do  is  to  put  our  own  house  in  order.  I 
mean  to  make  this  corporation  so  free  from 
criticism  in  its  business  methods,  so  fair  in 
its  deahngs  with  its  employees,  so  open  in 
its  competition  that  it  will  be  a  model  to  all 
others  of  its  kind.' 

"It's  a  long,  hard  fight,"  he  continued, 
*'but  we've  made  a  little  progress.  We've 
adopted  the  most  advanced  profit-sharing 
scheme  that  has  yet  been  evolved;  we  have 
formed  a  mutual  benefit  association  among 
our  employees;  we  have  offered  to  open  our 
books  wide  to  the  government;  we  have 
reduced  prices  instead  of  raising  them;  and 
we  have  taken  our  company  out  of  politics 
just  so  far  as  the  politicians  will  let  us.  But 
progress  is  mighty  slow.  We're  a  long  way 
off  from  our  vision. 

"For  I  believe  our  company  can  be  made 
the  greatest  missionary  society  in  the  world. 
We  go  into  a  land  stricken  and  barren  and 
unprogressive,  a  land  where  women  are  hitched 
to  the  plows  and  men  strive  all  day  in  the 
sun  for  a  bare  hving,  and  we  hand  them  the 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  227 

magic  power  of  machinery.  We  make  it  pos- 
sible for  one  man  in  an  hour  to  do  the  day's 
work  of  three.  We  remove  forever  the  haunt- 
ing dread  of  famine;  the  joy  of  hving  takes 
the  place  of  bitter  struggle.  The  people  are 
left  emancipated  to  new  happiness  and  edu- 
cation and  real  worship.  That's  my  religion; 
there  are  lots  of  crosses  in  it,  but  it's  a  working 
creed." 

*' Where  did  you  learn  to  live  like  that.''" 
I  asked  him.  And  he  answered,  "That's  the 
way  He  lived." 

If  that  is  not  empire  I  do  not  know  what 
empire  is.  Together  these  two  men  command 
more  wealth  than  was  ever  in  a  Roman 
province;  their  army  of  workmen  would  out- 
number a  dozen  Roman  legions.  Yet  they 
regard  themselves  as  mere  stewards  of  the 
Young  Man  of  Galilee,  tetrarchs  bearing 
rule  by  His  favor  and  in  His  name. 

In  a  thousand  diverse  places  I  have  taken 
the  back  covers  off  successful  men  and  watched 
their  souls  go  'round  —  in  the  offices  of  de- 
partment store  heads,  in  the  back  lobbies  of 
big   hotels,   in   the   private   cars   of   railroad 


228         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

presidents,  and  the  offices  of  penitentiary 
wardens  —  and  time  and  again  where  I  never 
suspected  it,  I  have  been  astounded  to  dis- 
cover the  insignia  of  the  Young  Man's  empire 
indehbly  inscribed.  I  have  scratched  suc- 
cessful men  with  a  sharp  question  such  as, 
*'  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul?"  —  scratched 
them  just  to  make  them  bleed  a  little.  And 
hardly  a  single  sample  of  real  red  business 
blood  have  I  ever  examined  without  finding 
some  trace  of  idealism,  of  faith,  and  hope  and 
love  —  the  stuff  that  made  the  life-blood  of 
the  Young  Man  of  Galilee. 

"What  shall  be  said  of  empire  such  as  this 
—  invisible,  yet  all-pervasive  and  all-power- 
ful? Or  of  words  which  through  nineteen 
hundred  years  are  still  potent  to  establish 
empire  and  to  rule?  Did  He  deceive  Himself, 
who  said  that  God  had  given  Him  the  king- 
doms of  the  world  for  His  own?  Could  de- 
ception have  persisted  nineteen  hundred  years 
and  still  gain  victories? 

We  have  traveled  through  the  preceding 
pages  together,  meeting  the  Young  Man  of 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  229 

Galilee  on  only  His  warm,  virile,  human  side. 
We  have  sought  to  avoid  all  those  doubts 
and  suppositions  concerning  Him  that  have 
been  the  occasion  for  unceasing  discussion; 
we  have  tried  to  voice  a  protest  against  the 
great  mass  of  literature  that  in  exalting  His 
divinity  has  made  His  life  so  unreal  as  to 
seem  almost  a  myth.  We  have  rejoiced  with 
Him  in  the  glory  of  physical  strength  and 
achievement;  we  have  laughed  happily  at 
the  jests  of  the  sinners  and  publicans,  and  His 
own  quick  retorts,  as  we  have  sat  with  Him 
at  dinner  in  their  houses;  we  have  thrown 
back  our  heads  with  Him  to  draw  in  the  full 
rich  tonic  of  the  Galilean  breezes;  we  have 
cheered  with  the  multitude  at  His  fearless 
denunciations  of  those  that  "devoured  widows, 
houses  and  for  a  pretense  made  long  hypo- 
critical prayers";  we  have  felt  our  pride  in 
His  friendship  lift  us  high,  as  we  watched  Him 
stand  majestically  before  the  rulers  of  His 
nation  scorning  their  subterfuge  and  refusing 
a  single  word  in  answer  to  their  false  accusa- 
tions; we  have  stood  crushed  beneath  His 
cross,   and  yet  wonderfully  happy  because, 


230         A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

to  the  very  end,  He  had  shown  Himself  a 
man,  and  a  master  of  men.  Our  httle  jour- 
ney through  these  pages  will  have  come  to 
no  end,  unless  we  can  close  our  eyes,  and  see 
Him  right  at  this  moment,  virile,  broad- 
shouldered.  His  strong  corded  hand  out- 
stretched. His  lips  parted  in  a  smile  reveaHng 
perfect  teeth,  a  flash  of  joy  in  His  eyes; 
unless  we  can  hear  the  hearty  man-to-man 
hail  with  which  He  would  welcome  us;  un- 
less we  can  know  that,  of  all  the  men  in  history 
whom  one  might  choose  as  the  companion  of 
a  joyous  half-day,  the  Young  Man  of  Gahlee 
would  be  most  joyous,  most  completely  and 
inspiringly  attractive  and  worth  while. 

That  is  the  picture  that  I  should  like  to 
leave  of  Him,  and  to  it  I  should  add,  not  a 
halo,  but  just  a  single  beam  of  transfiguring 
light.  For  I  have  not  been  able  to  read  His 
story  critically,  to  follow  Him  day  by  day 
through  His  various  experiences,  marking  the 
absolute  perfection  of  His  life,  and  His  won- 
derful mastery  of  men,  without  concluding 
soberly  that  there  is  something  greater  in 
the  Young  Man  of  Gahlee  than  in  any  who 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  231 

has  ever  walked  this  earth,  and  something 
different.  By  each  human  being  who  comes 
to  know  Him,  and  to  count  Him  as  a  friend, 
the  question  of  the  divinity  in  His  nature  has 
to  be  settled  individually,  not  from  such 
fragmentary  glances  as  have  been  furnished 
here,  but  from  the  record  of  those  who  were 
His  first  friends,  or  the  record  written  in  the 
lives  and  work  of  those  who  profess  His  friend- 
ship today.  The  evidence  is  ready  to  the 
hand  of  him  who  would  open  it.  It  has  been 
submitted  again  and  again  to  courts  of  priests 
and  prelates,  and  to  courts  of  robed  judges. 
But  because  this  is  a  man's  book,  for  men,  I 
have  thought  it  worth  while  to  pass  by  all 
such  tribunals,  and  to  record  the  judgment 
of  a  court  martial  upon  the  Young  Man  of 
Galilee,  in  His  claim  to  divinity.  Surely 
among  soldiers,  if  anywhere,  one  may  expect 
to  find  cool  judgment,  unswayed  by  sentiment 
or  interest. 

"What  think  ye  of  Him?"  we  ask. 

There  are  three  soldier  judges,  and  they 
render  their  opinions  individually.  The  first 
is  he  who  was  sent  out  with  a  band  of  guards 


232  A     YOUNG     man's     JESUS 

to  arrest  the  Young  Man,  and  returned  empty- 
handed  after  minghng  with  the  crowd  that 
hstened  to  His  words. 

"What  think  you  of  Him?"  we  ask.  And 
he  answers. 

"Never  man  so  spake." 

"And  you?"  we  demand,  facing  the  second 
judge,  a  short  powerful  man,  who  led  the  best 
manhood  of  a  nation  to  destruction,  and  lev- 
eled the  thrones  of  Europe  at  his  feet.  "You, 
Napoleon,  what  think  you  of  Him?  " 

"I  tell  you,"  he  answers  deliberately,  "that 
I  understand  men;  and  Jesus  was  more  than 
a  man.'' 

The  last  of  the  judges  has  left  his  opinion 
recorded  in  the  story  by  Mathew.  He  is 
the  Roman  centurion  detailed  to  superin- 
tend crucifixions  in  Jerusalem.  Sentiment 
has  no  place  in  his  character;  his  duty  is  to 
nail  the  victims  to  the  cross  and  to  get  it 
done  quickly.  There  is  much  blood  on  his 
hands,  some  of  it  the  blood  of  the  Young 
Man  of  Galilee. 

"Now  when  the  Centurion  and  they  that 
were  with  him  watching  Jesus  saw  the  earth- 


MORE     THAN     A     MAN  233 

quake  and  the  things  that  were  done  they 
feared  exceedingly,  saying: 

"Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God." 
Infinitely  firm,  yet  infinitely  tender,  pow- 
erful, majestic,  perfect  in  all  the  qualities 
that  excite  the  admiration  of  strong  men. 
He  remains  the  one  all-satisfying  ideal  of 
young  manhood.  Of  all  great  lives  only  His 
led  beyond  the  grave  into  greater  hfe;  only 
He  could  say  in  the  apparent  awful  collapse 
of  everything  that  He  had  given  His  life  for, 
"I  have  overcome  the  world."  Because  of 
the  marvel  of  that  life,  rather  than  because 
of  His  works  or  words,  or  the  testimony  of 
men  concerning  Him,  we  call  Him  not  merely 
Friend  and  Companion,  but  Master  and  Lord. 
The  Young  Man's  Jesus  is,  too,  the  Young 
Man's  Christ. 


Pnnctlon   Theolo91c.ll  Sfm(n.iry-Spee' 


1    1012  01151    1542 


W 


H  ,  || 


